Revenge is a Dish Served Best Cold
by Airplane-Watchin
Summary: A session with a little too many silent pauses, and much mentions of a certain pair of golden eyes...perhaps far too many mentions of said pair of eyes, after all he's not in a position where he should be "checking out" her eyes. He does get the job done though, so perhaps Kuon should be forgiven for being so "improper". Not canon. THE REALS CHAPTER 11 BE UP!
1. Chapter 1

Inspiration comes in the weirdest places, or it does for me. Thought up this snippet this morning when I was trying to get some sleep on the bus and once I started writing when I came home I couldn't stop until I finished it.

A little warning, the characters are ooc but I don't they are that far off...then again I'm biased lol

All mistakes are mine so it would really help if you guys can point them out.

**Enjoy!** I know I did writing it ;)

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Kuon Hizuri smiled gently as the student got up and walked out of his office.

Once the door shut close behind the teenage boy, Kuon jotted down some notes into the folder in front of him and put it away.

He grabbed the next folder in the pile on the right side of his desk and opened it up.

Minutes later he pressed a button on his desk phone to connect to his secretary.

Said secretary told herself for the millionth time that she must not swoon at the smooth sound of Hizuri-san asking her to send in the next person because she was currently working and no matter how appealing a man was work ethics were important, or so she told herself.

Taking a small breath to calm her nerves Ms. Takeshita softly called out to the next student.

A Ms. Mogami Kyoko politely knocked on the counselors' door and waited to be called in.

Slightly surprised at the knock, seeing as how students rarely ever knocked before coming through his door, Kuon called out for her to enter.

Looking up to the senior entering he motioned for her to take a seat.

She bowed low and timidly she took the seat in front of him.

"Hello Kyoko-san," he said in his smoothest voice hoping to put the nervous girl in front of him at ease. Although somewhat unorthodox, Kuon liked to call the students by their first names, just to keep things on level, or perhaps that's what he told himself because he could not get rid of the American habit of calling people by their first names. Either way, it seemed to work most of the time, students were more willing to open up to him if familiarity was used.

"Hello Hizuri-sensei " she replied politely.

"How are you Kyoko-san?"

"I'm well Sensei, how are you?"

Kuon smiled at her politeness and answered as truthfully as he could "I'm as well as I can be Kyoko-san, though a little tired."

She smiled back and Kuon knew that there pleasantries would get them nowhere so he decided to head straight into it.

"Why do you think you're here today?"

"Umm...well they told me to come; this isn't the wrong day is it?" She asked worriedly.

Kuon chuckled inwardly and told her that no, she had not come on the wrong day.

"Can you think of any reason why would need to come here Kyoko-san?" Kuon prodded lightly.

"No, not really" she said slowly shaking her head with the most expressive eyes he had ever seen.

"I see" stated Kuon slowly and a moment of silence descended upon them.

They stared at each other before Kuon broke the silence.

"You threw a biology book at Fuwa Shotaro and were it not for him ducking you would have hit his head, seriously injuring him" he specified without preamble.

She answered without missing a beat or letting anything show on her face.

"Yes"

"You also tried throwing your bento at him before the teacher interfered."

"Yes"

Kuon looked into those unchanging eyes and knew that she would be a challenge, a challenge not because it would be hard to crack her exterior but because of what she wasn't showing. He wasn't interested in making children into "good kids"; he would much rather that they let out feelings that never did anybody any good locked up in the soul.

"I have a report here stating that you threatened to cut off Nanokura Mimori hair with a razor that was in your hands at the time"

"I didn't threaten Mimori-san, I told her…politely."

Now it was his turn to give a simple answer "I see."

"You slapped Vuiguru Reino."

"Sexual harassment"

Kuon gave her a pointed look, secretly amused by her response. Not because of Reino clearly flirting with her, but because of the way she saw his flirting.

"You made the freshman, Ishibashi Hikaru, cry."

"Scaredy cat"

"And you refused to work on a group project with Fuwa-san because as you put it 'he is far too lazy and stupid to keep up with you', which resulted in a heated discussion between you two that completely disrupted the rest of the class period right?"

"Yes"

He observed her some more as she stared back wide eyed. There was no remorse in those golden spheres. He wondered why and he decided to take a shot.

"You know I always find it funny when people take revenge."

He could see the battle in her eyes trying to decide if she should ask him why. Her curiosity won over, or so he thought.

She snickered so softly that he almost missed it, "Is it because revenge is bad Sensei? Or are you going to tell me that I should not do such things because it's not 'nice'? Or perhaps you will tell me what my punishment will be if I do 'bad' things?"

Now it was his turn to laugh, and laugh he did.

His laugh caught her off guard and she watched him warily.

"No" he said once he was done "I won't tell you any of those things Kyoko-san, I think you misunderstood my previous statement. I meant that when people, especially younger people, take revenge they never do it properly."

He leaned back in his chair, appearing as if he was at home without a worry in the world, but he was watching her like a hawk, better yet he was watching those spirited eyes.

"I know how to take revenge on someone and it's not some sappy concept where I smile my life away and that is the perfect revenge because it shows the person that they're not worth your time" she huffed, clearly displeased at his explanation.

He raised an eyebrow, letting his face give all the answer she wanted.

She glared back and in an instant her eyes become even more electrifyingly brighter. A shiver ran down Kuon's body, a slow shiver that sent him a warm feeling. He ignored it as he tried to catch his footing, the glare threw him off track and he did not need the shiver to add on. He miscalculated.

Perhaps it would be better to say that he had underestimated the girl sitting in front of him.

Clearing his throat he questioned "What exactly to you think you will accomplish with being this childish?"

Daggers were being thrown at him, and Kuon knew he stepped on a time bomb. It was clear that some things about this topic set off Mogami Kyoko, top student in her grade.

There are always events or an event that forces people to completely fall off the road they are taking. He found it hard to believe that Kyoko woke up one day and decided she would piss off everyone that came into contact with her. According to her files the teachers, until these instances, had nothing but praises for her and her behavior was nothing short of extraordinary.

That was why he had gone with the revenge line, it was obvious from the incidents that she retaliated to everybody when they did something to her but in the case of one Fuwa Shotaro she acted without reason, or very little reason. An off handed comment was loudly made by Fuwa to his friends before the biology book came sailing straight at his head. The bento incident was abrupt with no prodding, according to the students she had opened up her bento and had gotten up abruptly and like before her eyes locked on to a laughing Fuwa. Somehow the teacher who had walked into get something she had forgotten saw Kyoko and knew that there would be a repeat of the biology book. Sure enough Kyoko picked up the bento and raised it back over her shoulders, aiming in Fuwa's direction.

"It's none of your business what I want to accomplish Sensei" she said coldly bringing Kuon back from his musings.

"You're right it is none of my business, but Kyoko-san when you start disrupting classes and causing harm to your fellow students then it becomes the school's business and in turn it becomes my business," he said gently.

She scowled and looked away.

"Why did you try hurting Fuwa-san?"

She refused to face him or even reply, so he continued.

"You know you could have done far worse things to him outside of school and you would have gotten away with it too, considering how smart you are."

Head jerked back to face him and he felt a weird pleasure at unbalancing her like this.

"What do you mean?" she asked eyes narrowing.

He shrugged "I'm just saying that for someone who's supposed to be so smart you sure picked a rather dull way of taking revenge."

Flabbergasted her mouth opened and closed trying to say something back to the man in front of her.

Not waiting for her reply Kuon went on "I mean honestly this is why I said before that people don't know how to take revenge properly, and no I don't mean the crap you said about smiling your life away. Revenge should be revenge, not something that makes you feel satisfied for about a few minutes tops and it disrupts the other person's life for about five minutes. Revenge is when you hurt the person just as bad as they hurt you, to the point that they never forget for the rest of their lives just what you did to them. Let me ask you a question Kyoko-san?"

She nodded, letting his words wash over her.

"Do you ever think you will forget whatever it is that Fuwa-san did to you?"

"No!" she replied instantly and vehemently.

"Exactly" he pointed out "Now answer this, do you think he'll remember forever that you once threw your biology book?"

"He….might" she said weakly.

Kuon grinned "Yes he just might, but in what context? Will he be angry when he remembers or will he look back and laugh? Treat it as one of those things that seem bad when they happen but years later it's just a funny incident that makes a great story?"

"He'll probably call me a baka…and then laugh at me…." she said gradually, in a low voice, looking down at her lap.

"Yes, he probably will but Kyoko-san when you remember what he did to you, how do you feel? I'm sure you don't see it as some joke."

As expected the downcast eyes shot up and the atmosphere in the room got decidedly heavier and colder.

"It pisses me off!"

"So wouldn't you want Fuwa-san to feel the same way when he thinks of your revenge? A biology book and bento are rather silly things to remember in anger" he explained.

A silence followed as both persons sat thinking about different things.

This time it was Kyoko who broke the silence.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" she demanded.

"How does Fuwa-san make you feel?"

"Hate"

Kuon chuckled "Kyoko-san, it's more than hate. People usually don't go around doing things out of character when they hate someone. It usually requires more than just hate as an emotion for people to go out of their way and into the extremes.

"Let's just say he was a jerk to me okay."

Kuon raised his eyebrow, waiting for her to continue when she did not he said "Care to elaborate?"

"No"

"Kyoko-san I'm trying to help you here."

Eyes glinted dangerously at the word 'help'.

"I don't need any help."

"Fine then, if you don't want my help in carrying out your revenge you know where the door is. Let's not waste any more of our time," he said exasperatedly.

"Why do you even want to help me Sensei, shouldn't you be telling me the exact opposite."

Throwing her a mischievous grin he answered "Because life can be so dull sometimes Kyoko-san."

She gulped, evidently agitated by his splendid smile.

Kuon wondered if he could make her blush, he had a feeling that her blush would look just as cute as her agitated look.

Mentally berating himself to focus on the topic at hand and not the young lady in front of him he rallied his thoughts. Seriously what was wrong with him? He was having improper thoughts about a student while on the job!

While Kuon fought it out with his conscience Kyoko looked into her lap and fiddled with her school skirt. It would seem that she was having an internal battle as well.

"Sensei? Have you ever been in love?" she whispered and Kuon almost fell of his chair. Could she read his improper thoughts?

Deciding that it would be better actually listen to what Kyoko was saying instead to jumping to drastically idiotic conclusiona Kuon replied in affirmative. Silence followed his answer once more.

Kuon could see that she was struggling, fighting her inner demons.

Perhaps it would be better to do this another day, thought Kuon but just as he was about to voice his opinion Kyoko looked up at him and started speaking.

"I thought I was in love once Sensei, but now I'm not so sure that it was love. If it was love why did it hurt so much, why did I feel like somebody shattered my body and every little bit that cracked was as painful as shards of glass cutting into my skin? I thought love was supposed to be a good thing so then why was it never good? I gave him everything I possible could Sensei. Is it just me Sensei? Is something wrong with me? Can love not work for me?" She pleaded with him.

He didn't know when but somewhere along the line the young woman in front of him had started crying. When the first tears fell down onto her hands she looked down at them in unfamiliar surprise. As if she couldn't fathom how they got there or even if they were her tears. She paused a bit just staring at those tear drops on her hand but then she continued on between hiccups and sniffles and Kuon's heart truly went out to her. Was it the greatest tragedy ever? No it was not but to the girl hurting in front of him it was and at the moment it was taking every little bit of life from her soul.

"Why couldn't he love me Sensei? I know I'm not the most beautiful, smartest, or the most fashionable girl out there but I could have tried Sensei. I thought he might have felt the same since he asked me to go to all those places with him but it was just his parents telling him to take me along with him," she finished bitterly, still with tears running down her puffed up cheeks.

"When I heard him speaking to those girls I knew that this couldn't have been love, love doesn't make it so painful that you can't even breathe. It's probably me…sniff…I couldn't make my mom love me and now I can't make Sho-chan love me either."

Without realizing it Kuon was kneeling by her side and he turned her chair around so she could face him properly. He gingerly he took her small dainty hands in his and rubbed them steadily as he spoke to her.

"Kyoko-san please listen to me, you can't make people love you but that doesn't mean they are worth you're love. Sometimes there are people who don't deserve your love, it's not because there is something wrong with you but rather there is something wrong with them. If they can't see your true worth then Kyoko-san they don't deserve the right to be loved by you. Cherish yourself more Kyoko."

She looked down at him with big golden crying eyes and he looked back just as intently trying to convey a strong message to her, a message she so desperately needed.

Before he could continue talking she had slid down the chair and he had enveloped her in his arms without a second thought. Was it improper behavior? Would he get in trouble if any of the school staff were to come in right that second? He would answer yes to both questions but he would also say that sometimes words don't work at all and that's why actions are much better. Comfort comes in many forms and right now Kyoko didn't need him to talk, she just needed him.

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Wah, it's funny the way plans just go down the drain sometimes. When I initially brainstormed about this while in school I completely wanted this to be a light read with a full dash of humor but I don't know what happened...maybe it can still be considered a light read?

**Thanks to all those who will read, review, follow, favorite this!**


	2. Chapter 2

I should be writing a chemistry lab report at the moment but everybody knows that Skip Beat takes precedence over school any time of the day and if the lab instructor does not agree I shall do my best to convince him otherwise tomorrow ;D

Okay this should have stayed as a one-shot, honestly I never trying writing two multiple chapter stories at once, I prefer doing them one at a time...but I couldn't stop typing this so here's another chapter. Anyways we shall see how this goes...and also blame those wonderful reviews that have officially turned this into an incomplete story.

Also Ren is totally OCC in this...i think, i honestly can't imagine him being like this in the manga..well not all the time anyway.

Mistakes be mine, so kindly point them out so I can bring them back home.

**ENJOY!**

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Utter mortification was what she felt when she finally saw him after a week of avoidance. She had made sure to avoid all the places he was known to be at.

She even went as far as to ask one of his sickly (in her opinion) fans from another class what his schedule was like and which stairs he took and which floors was one most likely to meet him. The girl had gushed out all the places one might see the school counselor Hizuri Kuon, she even went as far as to ask Kyoko if she wanted to join the fan club the school had for said counselor. Kyoko coldly declined and thanked the girl for the information, leaving behind a confused student. The rumors must be true thought the girl as she watched Kyoko walk away. Mogami Kyoko from class 3-C was a weirdo.

A few days later Kyoko looked back again at the day in the counselor's room as some horror movie come to life. Not only had she cried in front of Sensei she had hugged him, never mind the fact that it was Hizuri-sensei's hands that had gone around her first, it was completely her fault. After all she had poured her heart out and Sensei taking pitying on her was forced to hug her. Oh the humiliation!

Kyoko leaned against the hallway wall and asked herself for the thousandth time, how could she have been such a baka? It never clearly hit her as to what had happened until she was getting ready for school the next day. After the hug she had walked out of the counselor's office in a daze, not even remembering if she or Sensei had spoken afterwards. She had come home in that same dazed manner, and Sho had looked at her warily as if she would pounce on him any minute.

At least she had managed to avoid him at all cost and she hoped that her session with the school counselor was a onetime thing. What was she to do now? Walk around like some silly ninja trying to avoid one man in the school until she graduated?

She banged her head against the wall and chanted over and over, how could she have been so stupid?

Woman's laughter interrupted her ritual as her forehead was still attached to the wall. She tilted her head not breaking contact with the wall, and was met with a pair of glimmering green eyes and were she paying proper attention she would have noticed that the eyes had brightened even more at her posture.

She was dreaming, rationalized Kyoko, she had been put to a long sleep and that's why all these strange things were happening to her. Yes that's what it was, she was like some sleeping princess and some evil person, probably Sho had poisoned her so she would sleep forever, only instead of having sweet dreams she was having one long horrible nightmare. That bastard Sho! It was just like him to not only poison her but to make sure she suffered painfully while she was being poisoned. Damn him!

"Mogami-san?"

Kyoko jumped away from the wall and all but yelled "Hai!"

Momose-sensei was looking at her strangely as Kyoko tried to avoid looking at the grinning person standing next to her.

"Are you ok?" asked the soft hearted sensei.

Kyoko looked down at her feet and said that she was fine.

"Are you sure? Your forehead is all red, do you have a fever? Perhaps it would be best if you went to the nurse?"

Causing unneeded worry for her beautiful sensei caused Kyoko to look up and shake both her head and her hands.

"No! No! I'm fine Sensei, honestly! I don't have a fever, nor do I need to go to the nurse. Sorry for making you so worried."

She bowed as she apologized, and when she came up, her eyes evil as they were sometimes landed on Hizuri-sensei and the smirk he was giving her caused her to stiffen.

Jerking her head back to Momose-sensei, Kyoko flushed deeply in embarrassment. Someone should just kill her now.

"Oh my Kyoko-san are you sure you're fine, your face is all red, isn't it Momose-san?" asked Hizuri-sensei to Momose-sensei and Kyoko had a distinct feeling that he was teasing her.

She looked up to see both of them watching her, one with worry and the other with amusement clearly written on his face. Her blush came back full force and before they could continue with any other reasons for her not being well Kyoko hurriedly murmured an excuse and ran away…literally.

"My Kyoko-san sure runs fast ne?" said Kuon watching the girl run as fast as a cheetah.

"I hope there's nothing wrong with her" worried Momose.

While they both mused on the girl, said girl was huddled under a lab table in the currently empty darkened chemistry lab. Head in hands she didn't know if she should cry in distress or if she should just drop out of school and save herself months of future shame. Honestly she couldn't avoid him forever, nor could she meet him with any sense of sanity.

Two days later she pretty much got her answer.

Taking a deep breath with the secretary watching her strange behavior Kyoko raised her hand to knock on the door, after standing in front of it for more than ten minutes. Unlike all the other times she did not chicken out and actually managed to knock on the door this time, albeit a little too lightly for her taste. She just hoped Sensei had heard and she would not have to go through the nerve wrecking process again.

When she heard the voice telling her to enter she walked in slowly. Thankfully he wasn't facing her but looking through his filing cabinet in the corner of the room.

He did turn his head when he heard her enter.

"Kyoko-san! Please come in and have a seat. How have you been?" he was smiling that strange smile of his. The same smile she was sure he used on unsuspecting students to confess.

Still she bowed to him and politely answered his question and asked him how he was, refraining to smile at him like she did on the first day. She still stood, not sitting down before her elder.

He closed the cabinet and turned around to face her, "Let's have a seat shall we?"

"So you shoved your book bag into Fuwa-san's face this time, giving him a bloody nose," he said after they had taken their seat.

She internally scoffed at his smiling face, why was he smiling at her misery? Did he enjoy torturing her so? When her mind had started working properly after she met him in the hallway, she saw everything clearer.

He had teased her! And he had laughed at her silly antics…well not laughed but that smirk might as well have been a laugh. Why did he have to be so mean, just because she acted like such a weakling in front of him the first time did not mean he could use that against her.

"He deserved it" she retorted scathingly, puzzled as to why the teachers simply did not punish her but chose to send her off to the man in front of her. Why not send some of the silly giggling girls from his fan club.

Kuon stared at her answer and she stared right back. He had no right to treat her like she did something wrong, Sho deserved that bloody nose and more. She wouldn't apologize, not to Sho, not to her homeroom Sensei, or anyone else. She had not disrupted class, or done anything wrong without a proper reason.

She crossed her arms and looked back unwavering but somewhere along the line his India green eyes starting bothering her; did they have flecks of blue in them? She did not know why but a light blush spread through her cheeks and she looked away, turning her head towards the wall.

"Is something wrong Kyoko-san?" Kuon asked lightly after a few minutes.

Eyes narrowing Kyoko turned back to face and replied "Stop doing that, you know exactly why I'm here don't you? It's already all in my file isn't it? The same file which you read before I came here. So you already know everything, there's no reason to pretend like you really want to know what happened."

He raised that vexing eyebrow at her and she wanted to scream and throw a tantrum. Why was he playing around with her like this?

"You're mean, you know that Sensei" she stated.

"Am I?"

"Yes. Just because I cr-" she clamped her mouth shut at what she was about to say.

He looked at her gently and prodded "Just because you what?"

"Nothing."

"Because you cried?"

She glared at him, wishing he wasn't such a bully. His warm hug had really helped her, she couldn't explain it but her heart felt lighter than had in years. Like a thorn was taken out and everything was patched back together again, all good as new.

"I like you Kyoko-san"

Kyoko's previous thoughts went sailing out the window at his comment and she blinked, not once but twice.

An awkward silence fell in the room and Kyoko blinked some more.

Her blank face did not last long as a scowl filled her face.

"Please stop teasing me **Sensei**" she said grimly realizing that he was probably making fun of her somehow.

He laughed at her response and she wondered why she was surrounded by such horrible people.

"I don't mean it like that Kyoko-san; I meant that I like you because I find you interesting."

"You think I'm crazy don't you? That's why you think I'm interesting" she accused.

He chuckled and shook his head "Everyone's crazy to some extent Kyoko-san, if we weren't slightly crazy then we wouldn't be normal."

"Then you think I'm more crazy than most," she pointed out.

"Why would you say that?"

"Because everybody thinks I'm not normal," she blurted out before she could stop herself and she waited with withheld breath for his reply.

"What's normal for you?" he asked her.

Taken back all Kyoko could say was "Umm, I don't really know."

"Do you think I'm normal Kyoko-san?"

"Yes, except you have a bad habit of teasing people I think."

He grinned at that, and she could sort of, kind of understand why the girls flocked to him.

"Well then if I'm normal, can you use that one word 'normal' to describe me completely?"

Kyoko tilted her head as she tried to ponder what he was saying.

"Well…I don't think I can use just one word to describe you fully Sensei…actually I don't think I can even do that with people I've known my entire life" she said slowly.

"Exactly, most people can't be described fully using just one word. And using such a black and white word like 'normal' to define people is silly. Look at the two of us, we're not really similar, but if I was to say that since I'm normal and since you're different from me you aren't normal, than that wouldn't really make sense. People aren't black and white, we can be completely different from each other but we can both be normal too right?"

"How do you know though?" she asked, curious as to how he would answer her, but he shifted gears on her.

"Who says you're not normal Kyoko-san?" he questioned seriously.

It astonished her how serious he seemed, like it really mattered to him what people said about her.

She shrugged uncomfortably.

"Kyoko-san" he warned.

"People in class…I guess…Sho says it too…and some of the teachers think I'm weird too because I don't really have friends and I think up and say weird things sometimes…" she trailed off.

Why was she talking in front of him so much? Didn't she decide on something before she entered his office?

Kuon opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off.

"Sensei, didn't you say you would help me get my revenge?"

"Stop changing the subject Kyoko-san, and I never said specifically that I would help you with your revenge," he clarified.

"He hadn't?" questioned Kyoko internally. She wracked her brain trying to think of how their conversation had gone. She remembered him saying that he would help her but she wasn't sure if he said that he would help her or if he would help her with her revenge.

"Now would you care to answer my question Kyoko-san?"

"No"

"No?"

"No."

He blinked, she blinked, green versus golden, golden versus green.

"Stubborn girl"

"Stubborn old man"

"Childish girl"

"Meanie"

Kuon sighed and raised his hands and Kyoko contained her glee at her victory and kept her face as impassive as possible.

"Fine don't tell me, just go apologize to your Sensei for causing trouble, but we'll continue this another day Kyoko-san, as I have a meeting to attend in a few minutes" Kuon explained.

"Hai" she said like the obedient student she was, although she knew had previously said that she wouldn't apologize to the teacher she knew when she was in the wrong. Did the initial fault lie with Sho? Yes it did but to shove her bag in his face just because he wouldn't leave her alone about copying her history homework was wrong too, or at least it was a wrong thing to do while she was in school. She wouldn't apologize to Sho; if she could help it but she would apologize for all the trouble she seemed to be causing her homeroom sensei.

Kuon got up and she soon followed, bowing to him once they were both standing up.

When she reached the door knob she paused.

"Hey! Sensei you liar! You did tell me **specifically** that you would help get revenge on Sho!" she exclaimed turning to face him once more.

Kuon burst out laughing and nodded his head "Hai hai Kyoko-san I did say that, but today's not the day for it."

She frowned "I'm coming back to hold you to your word, liar-Sensei."

"I would like nothing better than to have you back."

And the smile he threw her way blinded her for a full four seconds.

She walked out without another word and pondered Sensei's openness. He was too American for her taste, the way he said things that could be mistaken for other things. He was in Japan now, he should know better to throw around things like that and it was probably that demonic smile he gave her minutes before that caught all those poor girls in his fan club.

Kyoko nodded her head as she walked back to her classroom, it made sense that those girls were blinded by that smile.

Grabbing her bag she walked first to the staff room to apologize for causing partial trouble and then she went off to the library to get her school work done before she went back to the inn to do her shift.

A couple of hours later she arrived to a shoe locker that was missing not only her shoes but was filled with garbage.

"Is that a chicken bone?" asked the lustrous voice coming from behind her shoulder.

"Gyyyaaahhh!" screamed Kyoko whipping around to knock the person into hell for scaring her like that.

Kuon backed away holding his hands up.

"Woah, calm down Kyoko-san."

Trying to calm her heart, Kyoko gave him a piercing look.

"Are you trying to kill me Sensei?"

"No one dies from a little raised heartbeat Kyoko-san" he countered rolling his eyes and putting his hands in his pant pockets.

"Yes they do! Don't you know about people who died because they were literally scared to death?"

"So where are your shoes?" he inquired tilting his head so he could look into her shoe locker.

"I have an extra pair in my classroom locker" she clarified, not bothering to deny that her first pair were either stolen or destroyed depending on how merciful the girls were.

"I see" he said twirling a pair of keys on his index finger.

Kyoko watched those keys to avoid the awkward situation she was in now.

"Want a ride home?"

"Eh?" she said, jolted out of her gaze on the keys.

He smiled, eye twinkling impishly "I asked if you wanted a ride home Kyoko-san."

"Sensei I feel sorry for your girlfriend" she stated matter-of-factly.

This startled him, and she could see it and it felt good to have one over him.

"Girlfriend?" he muttered, as if confused.

"Yes Sensei your girlfriend, Masa-san, or whatever her name is" Kyoko expounded.

"Masa?"

"Yes Marsa-san" said Kyoko trying to put as much of an American accent on the English name as possible

"Oh you mean _Martha_!"

Kyoko nodded at his correct pronunciation of the name.

A knowing grin came on Kuon's face as her words started making more sense.

"_Martha_ isn't the name of my girlfriend; actually I don't have a girlfriend. _Martha_ is actually the name of my precious ride."

"Ride?"

"Hmm. By the way how did you find out that I had a supposed girlfriend?"

"Some girls that I asked told me" she replied absentmindedly, trying to understand why he named his car Masa. Perhaps it's his first love and he named the car after her? Is that why the girl's thought he had a girlfriend? They mistook his car's name for him having a girlfriend.

"Oh so you've asked around about me?"

"Huh?" she looked up at him, coming out her musings. When his question got processed in her brain she traitorously blushed and denied the meaning he was implying "No it's not what you think! I'm not interested in you like all those girls Sensei; I just wanted to know your schedule so I could avoid you!"

And she shut up immediately and looked at her feet berating herself on her stupidity. Why did she always run away with her mouth in front of him?

"Avoid me?"

She didn't say a word lest she make him mad. She squeezed her eyes shut waiting for whatever horrible thing was to come.

"Would you like a ride Kyoko-san? _Martha_ is waiting," he surprised her by saying while pointing his thumb to the glass door entrance.

Kyoko looked up and sighed in relief, he didn't look mad, just that he wanted an answer to his question.

Softly smiling she shook her head, "Thank you for offering Sensei but I don't need a ride."

"Are you sure? There's enough space, it's can seat two people."

Kyoko gave him a confused look and he pointed outside once more.

Kyoko looked outside while he said "See there's enough space."

"Uhh Sensei, I don't see a car out there."

"Oh Martha isn't a car, she's standing right there, see."

Kyoko looked back at him and then back to the bicycle rack that held one bicycle with a back seat.

She looked back at the man, only to see an eager face.

"Please stop teasing me** Sensei**," she said with a straight-face as she turned around.

She walked back into the hallway before he could say a word.

She got her shoes from the classroom and grabbed a garbage bag and a pair of disposable gloves from the cleaning supply closet.

She cleaned out her shoe locker as best as she could and walked out of the school only to see Hizuri-sensei leaning by the bike rack with his bike and she couldn't help but think about the pleasing picture he made. He had a messenger bag slung over his shoulders and if she saw him on the street she would never guess that he worked at a school or that he was a counselor. He was smiling at her and she hoped that he wasn't still planning on teasing her.

"Which way are you headed Kyoko-san?"

When she hesitantly told him he said that he was going the same way partially so he hoped she wouldn't mind if they walked together.

She shook her head, letting him know she didn't mind walking with him but she hoped they wouldn't talk about her problems.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until Kyoko started stealing glances at him.

She couldn't understand him, he was strange man.

"Have you lived here all your life Kyoko-san?"

"Yes"

"Do you think you'll live here all your life?"

"Probably. How about you Sensei? Will you stay here forever too?"

"I'm not sure."

A calm stillness fell over them again as they walked on. Strange man with strange questions deduced Kyoko.

"Sensei, why didn't you ask me before why I hit Sho with my bag?" she asked the question that had been bothering her while she was doing her homework in the library.

"Because you said he deserved it"

"And you believed me?" she asked stunned.

"Yes" he said simply and she just could not believe him but he went on to elaborate, "Kyoko-san you're not the type of person who would hurt others just to feel some sort of self-satisfaction. Actually I believe that your true self wouldn't even be doing this revenge thing if the circumstance were a little bit different."

"Yes I would!" she bit out and he gave her amused look shaking his head.

"What does that look mean?" she demanded.

"Nothing Kyoko-san."

"You're treating me like a child, like I don't know my own self."

"I never said that."

"No, but your actions did."

She gave him a dirty look and turned to face the street once again. It was decidedly clear from his snicker that he was treating her like a small child.

Gathering her courage moments later Kyoko asked "Sensei, how does one get over heartbreak?"

Kuon looked at her and before she knew it had flicked her nose lightly.

"Sensei!" she cried covering her nose with her fingers.

Kuon laughed and replied "Come to my office tomorrow if you can give me an answer to the question I asked you today and I'll give you an answer to this question and I just might help you along with your little revenge Mogami Kyoko-san."

He turned his bicycle into the interrupting street and got on it.

"Till tomorrow" he said as he waved good bye to her.

She watched him ride away, briefly touching her nose.

She turned to go in the opposite direction with an unknown smile on her face.

* * *

He-he-he Martha written and pronounced in Japanese is really Masa..well according to Google and a couple of other sites. My knowledge in the whole spelling in Japanese is brief and kinda pathetic and since most of what i know has to deal with Kanji I can't be sure how accurate this is, so if anyone knows if google is incorrect in this then hit me up. He-he Martha, what a name to pick for a bike of all things!

Reviews are nice cuz they help me not do my homework and one cannot get enough help in that area ;)

**Thanks for reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing!**


	3. Chapter 3

Me the morning after I put up chapter 2: ^_^

Me when I checked my email that same morning: o_o

Me when I found out that said chapter got 199.999999 reads in one day: O_O!

Ok so the chapter didn't really get 199.999999 reads but when I saw that it got 199 might as well have all those decimal figures following it! Seriously **you guys are AWESOME**! The number of reads/followers/reviews/favorites is still surreal to me. KYYYAAAAAAA...ok fan-girl moment over. hehehehe Thank you just doesn't feel enough but thank you anyways because besides saying it in other languages I honestly don't know how else to express my thanks.

Mistakes are mine, all mine! So point out the deviants will ya plz?

**ENJOY!**

* * *

Kuon was typing on his laptop when someone walked into his office without a prior warning, which was a normal occurrence but the person who walked in startled him though he didn't let it show.

Plopping down into the seat without permission, which didn't surprise Kuon, seeing as how a lot of students did the same thing, Fuwa Shotaro stared at Kuon, or perhaps glowered, would fit better.

Kuon closed the laptop and placed it away giving his undivided attention to the scowling Fuwa.

"How may I help you Shotaro-san?" asked Kuon, bestowing his pleasant smile.

"It's Sho. And I'm not here for your help; I just need you to stay away from Kyoko."

My, my what have we here pondered Kuon as he stared at the very territorial boy in front of him.

"Whatever do you mean Shotaro-san?" questioned Kuon ever so innocently.

The scowl hardened into a glare and a frosty replied was voiced "I mean stay the hell away from Kyoko."

"Well I shall certainly try Shotaro-san" Fuwa cringed; he hated it when teachers called him that name. Actually he got irritated when anybody called him by that name "But you do know that it would be decidedly hard to do such a thing, don't you?"

"What do you mean? How hard can it possible be to stay away from a chick like Kyoko?" questioned Fuwa, confusion apparent on his face.

"Well you see Shotaro-san this is a school, and unlike you I have obligations to fulfill. And if those obligations include Kyoko-san than I can't very well say that due to Shotaro-san's command I must not complete my responsibilities. I was hired as a counselor for a reason Shotaro-san, not so I could follow the whims of a child," Kuon said, never losing his smile.

Eyes narrowed and Kuon deemed that he would much rather have another pair of eyes narrowing at him.

"What do you even see in her Hizuri? I mean she's a wallflower without an ounce of appeal. Ha-ha-ha unless you've fallen for her or something? Why don't you try going out with Momose-sensei instead? You two would make a good pair and she's beautiful enough."

Kuon lost the smile and a smirk took its place, he looked down at his desk to fiddle with some papers and he looked up with a slanted head.

"Have you been watching too many soap operas Shotaro-san? Or perhaps you've been reading one too many shoujo manga. Like I said I have a responsibility towards the students of this school and I don't have time to waste with a child who can't even see what's right in front of him."

Fuwa was mad, well more along the lines of furious. His finger crushed into fist and Kuon could see him trying to hold his anger in check.

"What don't I see that's in front of me?" he bit out bitterly unmistakably not wanting any "help" from Kuon.

"You like Kyoko-san, or better yet you want to possess her," said Kuon without a second thought.

Fuwa looked at him and burst out laughing.

"Don't you think you've been watching too many soap operas now Hizuri?" challenged Fuwa when he gained his breath back.

"Hmm that maybe so Shotaro-san, but let's look at the situation we have here shall we?"

"What situation?"

"Where are you right now?"

Fuwa looked at Kuon like he was crazy.

"I'm in your office" he said deadpanned.

"Yes in my office, and why did you come to my office?" asked Kuon kindly.

"To…tell you to stay…away from Kyoko?" answered Fuwa uncertainly.

"Yes you came in here to tell me to stay away from Kyoko-san. You Shotaro-san came to my office. The same office you refused to come into in April at the beginning of the school year, do you remember?"

"So?" demanded Fuwa.

"So do you remember what you said then about not coming with me?"

An avoidance of glance was all Kuon needed to continue what he was about to say.

"Let me refresh your memory shall I? I believe your words verbatim were 'I don't need to sit in a little room sharing my life story while some gaijin bishounen tells me how to turn my life around into roses and rainbows. I'll only be dragged there over my cold dead body!' does that ring any bells Shotaro-san?"

"So what if I said that? People are allowed to change their minds aren't they?" returned Fuwa hotly, evidently not happy with where this conversation was going.

Kuon chuckled "That's certainly true Shotaro-san, but what made you change your mind?"

No answer was forthcoming from the young man sitting in the chair.

"You came because of Kyoko-san," stated Kuon enunciating with deliberate easy.

"I didn't! And it's none of your business!" yelled a miffed Fuwa.

"Then if it isn't my business please don't barge into my office and make preposterous demands."

The easy going attitude had left Kuon altogether.

The anger still had not left Fuwa and the men started at each other as a stifling silence filled the room.

"You don't even care about her" accused Fuwa childishly.

Kuon wondered what the best way to answer that accusation would be, but before he could decide another voice joined the conversation.

"Sho! What do you think you're doing?" ordered a furious Kyoko, who had just rushed in.

Fuwa turned around in his seat and looked at Kyoko.

"What the hell are you doing here Kyoko?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Nanokura-san told me that you were coming here to bother Sensei because I wouldn't answer your dumb questions!" threw back the black hair teenager.

"Curse that Mimori" muttered Fuwa.

"Hello Kyoko-san"

Kyoko's head slowly turned in his direction and he was utterly pleased to see the discomfort seep through her. He was not some sadistic person but he wanted to see through the cracks in Kyoko's well-built personality. She was a good girl but something else lay underneath her proper exterior and Kuon was curious as to what it was exactly.

"Hello Hizuri-sensei" she mumbled bowing to him.

"How have you been? I was wondering if you would ever come back here after our last conversation."

The pair seemed completely oblivious to Fuwa in his seat.

Chagrin rose in her as she perceived the meaning behind those words.

"You're being mean again Sensei" she indicated hoping to change the subject.

"What are you talking about? Why would you need to meet with him?" interrupted a confused Fuwa.

The icy glare Kyoko sent his way almost caused him to shut his mouth…almost.

Getting up Fuwa stalked over to Kyoko and grabbed her arm "Come on let's get out of here."

"Let go of me you baka, I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Didn't you come here to find me?" smirked an arrogant Fuwa.

"Yes I came looking for you so you wouldn't bother Sensei, I wasn't looking for you specifically," snarled Kyoko.

Kuon lazily got up from his chair as Kyoko jerked her arm out of Fuwa's hand, and out of reach.

Kuon took that moment of confusion to all but drag Fuwa towards the door.

Giving the teenage boy a little push he announced to his watching secretary "Shotaro-san is done here Takashita-san, please make sure that he goes back to class, I believe it's been a while since lunch finished."

"I TOLD YOU MY NAME IS SHO!" roared Fuwa as the door was shut in his face.

Takashita-san sighed and thought another troublesome student to deal with. It was hard enough dealing with Hizuri-san's fans each day.

Kyoko looked at her Sensei as he watched her carefully.

"Shall we have a seat Kyoko-san?"

Kyoko shook her head, "I'd rather not I need to go back to class too. I can't miss my math class."

"Lunch ended almost half an hour ago, so aren't you already missing class?"

"No, we had a study period and that's why I could come here."

"Ah I see," said Kuon leaning against his desk putting his hands on the desk at his sides, facing her.

"Well then Sensei I'll take my leave"

Before she could take a step Kuon reminded her "You know Shotaro-san might be out there still."

Displeased with his reminder Kyoko wondered what she should do now.

"You can have a seat you know, I won't bite, and we don't have to speak if you don't want to."

Choosing the lesser of the two evils Kyoko nodded in agreement, but chose not to take a seat.

She looked around the small office as Kuon toyed with the pen holder by his side. She was avoiding his gaze and he wondered absentmindedly if she would get irritated if he were look up and just stare at her.

Still he had to take a chance did he not?

Raising his eyes he examined the girl in front of him. She was looking around the room, trying not be unnerved by his gaze.

He had meant it when he told her that he liked her, she was interesting to say the least.

Her rather atypical behavior did not bother him, seeing as how he was surrounded by strange people all his life. When you know a man like Takarada Lory, nothing much surprises you. Kuon could understand why people might see her as abnormal but he personally thought that it was the beauty of her. The placidness of her, thrown together with her abrupt behavior made for a likeable person.

It came to him as no revelation that a person like Fuwa could not see who this girl truly was. When one only looked at the outer shell then the true value is often missed. Was Kyoko ugly? Hardly but she certainly wasn't like most of the girls in this school who folded their skirts up to such a daring degree that sometimes even Kuon worried that he would unintentionally catch a peek of something he would much rather not.

He had to admit though that he liked her looks, jet black hair contrasting strikingly with those golden bands. Golden eyes that might turn into a weakness of sorts if he were to keep heading in the direction he was going.

"Do you like to read Sensei?" Kyoko inquired snapping Kuon out of his pleasant speculations.

"Yes I do enjoy reading. Why do you see anything fascinating that you like?"

The slight fidget was all he needed to know that something had caught her attention; still she endeavored to appear unaffected.

"No, not particularly" she said taking her eyes away from the specific bookshelf she was looking at.

Kuon leisurely walked over to the bookshelf and ran his fingers along the books in the shelf just above the one she had been staring at, and when he stopped at one he cocked his head to face her and asked.

"You wouldn't be interested in '_La Vita Nuova_' by any chance would you?"

Her immediate response was to scrunch her nose and blurt out a "no" passionately.

Kuon watched amused as she comprehended her response, it was undeniable that she was not pleased with her rash reply.

Kuon moved his finger onto another one of his books.

"How about '_The Prince_'"?

"No, thank you"

Back to being proper huh, mused Kuon as he slowly trailed the books, knowing well that her eyes were following his lithe fingers.

Turning his head towards the bookshelf to hide his grin, Kuon languidly took his fingers down to the shelf that he knew would contain the book that had caught her attention.

Her eyes were mesmerized watching those fingers as they grazed the spines of each book ridiculously slow.

"_Lord of the Rings_?"

She shook her head. He peeked over his shoulders.

"_These 13_?"

"No" was whispered.

"_The Little Prince_?"

Her eyes shimmered but Kuon knew that he had not reached his target yet. As his hand hovered over the small red book he plucked it out carefully and her eyes followed.

"_Peter Pan_?" he probed handing the book out to her.

"Yes!" she gushed out reaching for the book.

When her hands embraced said book Kuon did not let go. She looked up at him, none too pleased.

"You know this isn't Disney's Peter Pan, this is the original story."

Confusion filled her face.

"This isn't anything like the movie."

"I don't mind I like reading about fairies and magic" retaliated the excited Kyoko.

Sighing Kuon let the book go as she cradled it in her hands.

She might as well be a fairy herself contemplated Kuon as he watched her.

"Thank you very much Sensei, I'll be sure to return this as soon as possible."

Kyoko bowed to him and when she came up he raised his brow and asked.

"Return?"

"Yes…" faltered Kyoko.

"Why would you be returning it, Kyoko-san?"

He locked eyes with her and watched as she squirmed.

"Sorry Sensei! How presumptuous of me for thinking that you were letting me borrow this!"

She bowed again and held out the book in front of her.

Kuon rubbed his chin with his fingers and noted "So you think I'm the type of person who would be cruel enough not to let people borrow my things?"

Kyoko stiffened in her bow and the room stilled.

Still bowing Kyoko shook her head vigorously and bowed even deeper, which Kuon found shockingly believable.

"Please forgive my narrow assumptions Hizuri-sama! It was not my intention to imply such a horrendous thing!"

Kuon stifled a burst of laughter but he must not have been all that successful as Kyoko shot up and looked at the man in front of her.

She looked at him and Kuon stared back.

"**Sensei**?"

Kuon cleared his throat, coughing once in his hand to keep from laughing.

"Yes Kyoko-san?

"Please let me borrow this book, **Sensei**" she said distinctly.

"Yes Kyoko-san"

"Thank you Sensei!" and gone was the anger as her eyes landed on the book affectionately and Kuon was left debating which he preferred, the anger or the affection.

The ringing of the bell broke through the room's door and Kyoko looked up in revelation.

"I need to go now Sensei, thank you again for letting me borrow this book!"

She moved towards the door and stopped when she reached it. Turning slowly she looked up at him, almost pleadingly, almost, or perhaps he wished she was.

"Sensei….can you please….check…" she straggled off and looked down at her shoes, not knowing how to continue such a request.

Kuon smiled softly "Sure, Kyoko-san."

Her head whipped up as Kuon walked to the door as she moved out of the way, somewhat dazed.

Kuon opened the door and peeked out, his secretary gave him a questioning look and he threw her a smile as he looked around the premises.

Looking back at Kyoko he said "The coast is clear, Kyoko-san, I don't see any sign of Shotaro-san. You might want to hurry to your next class taking a different route, because I have a feeling Shotaro-san will be running to my office soon."

She nodded and bowed and hurried out, thanking him once again.

Takashita-san watched Kyoko walk away and turned back to Kuon.

"Is everything okay Hizuri-san?"

Kuon turned his attention back to her.

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Well it seems that Mogami-san is coming to your office more often now. I don't want to presume but just to be on the safe side wouldn't it be better to lessen her visits?"

Kuon knew what his secretary meant but he wanted to hear it from her mouth.

"What do you mean?" he queried looking as oblivious as possible.

Takashita-san shifted in her seat and replied "I mean that it wouldn't do Mogami-san any good to let her think that these sessions are special in anyway. We know that these young girls can become easily mistaken into thinking that these sessions are more than purely professional."

Kuon laughed internally, as his secretary was circling around what she wanted to say but was trying to be as indirect as possible.

"You mean she might think that I have romantic feelings or something if I were to have one too many sessions with her?" asked Kuon.

"Exactly!" exclaimed Takashita-san glad that he understood what she was saying.

Kuon walked up to her desk and stood in front of it, staring down at the young woman,

"Takashita-san" he said hoarsely leaning down just a bit.

Takashita-san shifted once again and gulped as she stared into those green eyes.

"Yes" she barely whispered, trying to dispel her many fantasies of the school counselor that abruptly came to her mind.

"Do you have someone you like romantically?"

"I…" and she just could not continue with that gaze of his boring into hers.

"Do you Takashita-san?" Kuon whispered dangerously low, putting a delicious emphasis on her surname than was necessary.

Takashita-san licked her decidedly dry lips, even though she had put on some lip balm moments ago.

"Come now, Takashita-san there must be someone" prodded Kuon casually.

Clearing her throat Takashita-san nodded.

"And may I ask who this person is?" asked Kuon with a small smile on his lips.

Takashita-san turned a watermelon red and tore her eyes away from the enticing man in front of her.

Kuon leaned in more, much to the discomfort of Takashita-san, and whispered hotly in her ear.

"I don't think Kyoko-san has a problem in the crush department Takashita-san, after all there's nothing wrong with a little crush every now and then is there?"

Heart beating perilously fast Takashita-san shook her rosy face when Kuon moved back.

Dazzling her with his smile, Kuon turned to walk back into his office, but he was effectively stopped with a cry from behind him.

"Where the hell is Kyoko!"

Kuon turned to face his adversary, "Ah Shotaro-san, I had a feeling you would be coming back. Let's go into my office shall we?"

Kuon motioned towards his office but did not wait for the teenager to follow him.

It didn't take long for Fuwa to join him in the office.

Kuon closed the door after him and rather than taking a seat walked over to the window behind his chair and looked out for a second before turning on Fuwa.

"How may I help you, Shotaro-san?"

"Where is Kyoko?"

Kuon pretended to think about the question and replied "Why?"

"Cut the bullshit, I asked you were she is, not to analyze my question."

"Sadly Shotaro-san I'm a counselor not a detective, so you came to the wrong person if you're looking for missing persons, or perhaps the police would be a better choice?" Kuon offered drily.

Fuwa's eyes narrowed murderously and Kuon could not help but roll his eyes.

"You know this is getting old really fast Shotaro-san. If you can't keep track of Kyoko-san then please don't barge into my office as if I'm responsible for knowing where she would be."

Fuwa sneered, "And yet she always seems to be hanging around you."

Kuon looked amused, two people in a matter of minutes.

"Care to tell me just how many times Kyoko-san has been here Shotaro-san?"

"How should I know?" asked Fuwa defiantly.

"My apologies Shotaro-san I presumed you would know since you are sitting here accusing me of latching on to Kyoko-san, but to answer my question if I remember correctly; she has been here a total of three times. The third time she came to find her wayward classmate who she correctly thought was causing trouble where he should not be."

Fuwa said not a word but that didn't bother Kuon. Maybe it would have been better to make Fuwa go back to his classes outside of the office rather than inviting him in. Then again the ever curious Takashita-san would have wondered at that, considering Fuwa's brash entrance.

Sighing Kuon took a seat and firmly told Fuwa that it would be better if he went back to his class.

"Stay away from Kyoko" came the order and Kuon rolled his eyes again.

"We've discussed this before Shotaro-san; I'm under no obligation to listen to such a request."

"Whatever," stated the teen as he stood up loudly and walked out of the office, slamming the door after him.

Kuon shook his head in amusement. He should have handled it better, but his patience had been significantly lowered after that little brush with his secretary.

It would not do anybody any good if Kyoko was thought about in that manner. What he said about crushes being fine was true, but there was always a chance for exaggerations. That's what worried him, the exaggerations. A girl like Kyoko who had been abandoned by her mother and was seen as a strange creature was open for all types of speculations from people.

He was not deaf to the rumors that floated about this school, and he had heard his fair share concerning Kyoko. Not say that all of them were bad but still it did not sit right with him.

He knew a girl like Kyoko would never fall for him, or have any such delusions but if she were to keep coming to his office certain people, namely his "admirers" would not see it that way.

Perhaps I'm overthinking this assessed Kuon as he slouched in his seat to look up at the ceiling.

Probably am, speculated Kuon as he got back to his work.

Days later and four students who had come one after the other towards the end of the day Kuon was just about ready to head on home.

Stretching his long body as he stood up Kuon started putting away everything on his desk.

Grabbing his messenger bag from under his desk, he put all the necessary things he needed to take home with him.

Checking to make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be Kuon closed the light and walked out. Takashita-san had left a few minutes earlier at his insistence.

Stretching his arms to get all the kinks out Kuon walked down the hallway, meeting the students who were going home after having been in their clubs. Some said goodbye to him, namely the boys, and the girls tried to talk to him but he capably avoided long conversations and made good time getting out of the school building to his beloved Martha.

Unlocking his bike he climbed on and steered the bike towards the school entrance.

It was hotter today than it had been during the week, but riding his bike made it less unbearably.

Turning into the street he had taken with Kyoko days ago Kuon wondered what to have for dinner.

That thought was soon dispelled as he slowed his bike, reaching the crouching figure on the side of the narrow street.

Stopping in front of the figure, Kuon put the brakes on his bike and crouched down.

"Kyoko-san?"

Her head was in between her knees which were wrapped around with her arms.

Kuon looked around to see if something bad had happened to her, when he saw nothing of consequence he looked at her body to see if she was hurt anywhere.

"Kyoko-san?" he questioned quietly as he briefly touched her shoulder.

She gradually raised her head and Kuon was bewildered to find that the eyes he had become so fond of were filled with tears.

* * *

Hehehe i'm sorry I'm not really one for cliffys but I just couldn't resist teasing you guys...Kuon's having an "effect" on me. Seriously I'm liking this guy more and more!

Apologizes for the way Sho behaved in this, I would have really liked for him to open up more and say something besides "Stay away from Kyoko" but I think the whole Kuon being there thing didn't help my cause much.

Also for anyone who cares rating has gone up cuz Kuon's being naughty even though I have no intention for him being this way considering it is a school setting. Anywhoots thanks to those people who encouraged me regarding my schooling :) I did turn in that lab report if it matters.

**THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO READ/REVIEW/FAVORITE/FOLLOW THIS!**


	4. Chapter 4

Guess whose finals ended?! Haha I got like two weeks of before I start the torture again so here is the long awaited chapter...if they are ppl still waiting lol.

Before we begin though I must apologize for the loooooonnnngggg delay, the past two weeks have pretty much been spend studying, cramming, reading, writing lots, translating, worrying, and trying not to hyperventilate when the prof takes forever to give me the darn test even though I'm right in front of him, cuz ya know I just might forget what I learned/crammed...who cares if i've got a cheat sheet...anywhoots, here we are and I apologize for delaying this. Forgive me please.

I know this chapter is smaller than the others, but I just couldn't wait any longer to publish this, and in a way it works out better for me, and no cliffys guys ;)

Mistakes be all mine...contact the number pinned to them, if you find them.

**ENJOY DEAR READERS!**

* * *

"Kyoko-san is everything okay?" Kuon asked worriedly.

Kyoko shook her head and looked him in the eyes.

"Sniff….Sensei?"

"Yes Kyoko-san?"

"Why did Wendy have to grow up?" she wailed and it took Kuon a moment to take in what she just said.

A moment of silence was followed and promptly broken by Kuon.

"Why did Wendy have to grow up?" repeated Kuon as he raked his hands through his golden locks.

Sniffing some more Kyoko nodded her head and looked up at him imploringly.

A pair of mothers with grocery bags walked slowly by, staring at the strange pair on the ground with no shame.

Kuon smiled at them and nodded a greeting just to get them to move faster along.

He took his chance to escape while they were distracted with his good looks and glittering smile. Grasping Kyoko's arm gently he raised the teenager up and in one swift motion had her book bag in his other hand.

Making sure she could stand properly he nudged her to walk beside him.

Looking around as they walked Kuon wondered where they could sit and talk properly.

"Do you want to go back to the school?" he looked sideways asking her.

She shook her head and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

When he finally spotted a small café tucked away into the street Kuon lead them to it and locked his bike outside to a pole.

They took a seat at table next to the café window.

Kuon watched Kyoko and was glad to see that she was no longer crying.

A waiter came to take their order Kuon orders some tea and a slice of the cake Kyoko was stealing peeks at through the display.

She flustered and fidgeted when he ordered and Kuon knew that once the waiter was out of hearing she would thank him and tell him that he did not have to order anything for her.

One, two, three, four, counted Kuon mentally as the waiter walked and away and sure enough Kyoko opened her mouth to speak.

"Sensei, thank you for ordering for me but you really didn't have to get me anything," saying that she bend down to her school bag that Kuon had placed near her chair after she had taken a seat, and took out a wallet.

"I never said I ordered anything for you Kyoko-san."

Her hand stilled on opening her wallet as she looked up at him.

Kuon grinned widely and waited for her expected reply.

She blinked owlishly and Kuon tilted his head. She put the wallet down on the table slowly, evidently not knowing how to proceed.

"Umm…"

"Yes?"

She shook her head and remained quiet. Kuon speculated if he had pushed her too far.

Kyoko looked out the window with her hands in her lap, sitting as erect as ever.

"Who taught you to sit like that?" asked Kuon curiously.

Kyoko turned her gaze on him and it never ceased to pleasantly surprise him, how bright her eyes really were.

"Sit like what?" she questioned eyebrows furrowed.

"Sit all formal like that," Kuon waved his hand to her sitting position.

"Okami-san taught me"

"Okami-san?"

"Un, Sho's okaa-san."

"I see"

Kyoko delicately took a sip of the water from her glass while Kuon ran lazy circles around the rim of his glass.

"Sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you call Sho, Shotaro? Everyone else calls him Sho, even the teachers."

Kuon shrugged "Shotaro is his name isn't it?"

"Yes but…do you call him that to annoy him?" she hesitated but rushed the last part out.

"Perhaps, perhaps not" stated Kuon with a hidden smirk.

The waiter came back with their order and placed the scrumptious cake in front of Kyoko and the tea in front of Kuon.

Once he moved out of range Kyoko picked up the pretty looking cake but Kuon stopped her.

"I don't really like cake Kyoko-san"

"Eh!"

"Please do me a favor and eat it will you?"

"But-"

"Surely you don't want the cake to go to waste do you?" interjected Kuon ever so remorsefully.

Kyoko opened her mouth and then closed it.

Kuon looked down from her and took a sip of the tea he had ordered.

He peered over the rim of the cup as he took another long sip, she seemed discomforted by the plate in front of her but as if rallying her strength she straightened and grabbed the fork with some strange fortitude.

As she shoved the cake in her mouth Kuon snickered, which made her look up and choke slightly.

"Whoa, Kyoko-san calm down" Kuon said as he handed the glass of water to her.

She drank the water and took a deep breath, looking down at the tablecloth.

"Sorry"

They apologized simultaneously.

"Eh!"

Kuon smiled at her reaction "For forcing you to eat the cake, perhaps you would have preferred something else."

"No, no, no" hands waving about "I like this cake...well I mean I like it now, because I never had it before, but I did want to try it forever but I never really got a chance and then this one time I came close to getting it but then I remembered that my shift started in about fifteen minutes or so and so I had to rush to the inn! And then there was this one day that I had the time but a little girl didn't have enough money to buy the cake she wanted for herself and her little brother so I gave her my money. There was also the time the Okami-san had this café cater for an event and the cake was one of the desserts we were serving and Okami-san had saved a variety of the desserts for the staff but before I could get a chance to get my hands on the cake it was finished. I also tried making it but it didn't turn out this way, because I didn't know what they put in the cake and I was too embarrassed to ask the workers."

Kuon placed his chin in his palm as he watched her rant adorably. The fact she was completely lost in her world about a piece of cake was appealing.

In a burst her rant stopped as the name Sho came into the sentence.

Kuon raised his eyebrow, chin still in his palm as she froze and looked at him.

"Oh, do continue Kyoko-san" he said good-naturedly.

"No, thank you" came the barely there voice as she looked down at her hands in her lap.

Kuon took a sip of his tea and looked out the store window. A pair of high school girls were walking by; giggling in mirth at whatever conversion was taking place.

Kuon took his eyes away from them and placed his cup down with a little clink.

"Kyoko-san why were you crying before? You said something about Wendy growing up."

She shook her head, causing some locks to come undone from her pigtails. Wordlessly she bend down and rummaged through her bag and placed a book in front of him.

Kuon looked between the red book and her.

Kyoko stood brusquely and hung her bag on her shoulder. She bowed and Kuon had an inkling as what was coming.

As she turned to leave, his long arm reached and mildly captured her small wrist in his aesthetic hand.

She paused and he paused, both not knowing what was happening. She did not know why that hand was circling her wrist and as if in a dream she sluggishly looked down at the long fingers.

He was also watching his hand, vaguely wondering how his hand got there.

"Mogami?" questioned the syrupy voice.

Kyoko turned to look at who had spoken but Kuon continued his silent conversation with his disobedient hand. Why was it being so defiant? If Kuon remembered correctly he was in control of his hand, not the other way around.

"My, what are you doing here Mogami?" asked Aki Shoko, the English teacher, as her gaze lighted upon the hand that was keeping Kyoko rooted in place.

Standing next to her was a very smug Nanokura Mimori.

"Bothering Hizuri-sensei probably" answered Nanokura for Kyoko.

Kyoko narrowed her eyes at her fellow student and Nanokura took a step closer to Aki.

"I'm not bothering anyone and even if I was I don't see how it's any of your business Nanokura-san" came the frigid retort.

"Mogami, there's no need to use such a tone. Mimori is just worried about you, aren't you Mimori?

Aki glanced pointedly at Nanokura. Nanokura sniffed and looked away.

"Now Mogami" started Aki "would you mind telling me what exactly you were doing here with Hizuri-sensei? If you had to discuss something with him then it clearly should be done in school, not in a café."

Her cordial smile left no room for argument but before Kyoko could reply, Kuon stood up sliding his fingers away from the warm wrist he had been holding, the same wrist that had stiffened when Aki and Nanokura came into the picture. Were it not for the raised heartbeat, he felt while his fingers itched to move up the polished skin Kuon might not have gotten up, lost in his thoughts as he was.

"Actually Aki-sensei, I brought her here" said Kuon standing beside Kyoko.

Aki fluttered her eyelashes and replied breezily "Oh my Hizuri-san, whatever did you need to meet here for?"

Kuon folded his hands and answered nimbly while releasing a small chuckle "Well if I told you then I wouldn't be much of a counselor now would I? You must know that anything that occurs between me and the students is strictly confidential ne?"

"Oh yes but I'm her sensei and as such I do have some right to know what's going on don't I? I mean can you blame me for being worried when I see the two you in a café like this? It hardly seems professional" she said lightly, throwing in a small laugh.

"That certainly would be the case Aki-sensei if she was causing you trouble but the fact of the matter remains that I have no cause to believe that and also let's not forget that there is another student present" said Kuon pointing to the displeased Nanokura.

If Kuon was being direct he might even say, mildly amused, that Nanokura was glaring at him.

Aki looked at Nanokura and ordered "Mimori leave us for a few minutes will you."

Ah the claws come out, mused Kuon as he watch Nanokura jerk her head in surprise. She opened her mouth to protest but it was not her voice they heard.

"Excuse me, but I need to be going."

Without bowing Kyoko rushed past the women in front of her and Kuon stood stumped.

He had not seen that coming, and he almost missed the dejected expression on her face.

"Mogami stop!" commanded Aki, but the teenager took no heed.

Kuon picked up the book from the table while asking for his check.

"She is such a brat" proclaimed Nanokura as she watched her black haired classmate walk out the door. Aki on the other hand let out a frustrated sigh.

Kuon paid the bill was about to chase after the girl when sharp fingers captured his arm.

"I think it would be better if you stayed here Hizuri-san. You wouldn't want the school to find out about something like this now would you?"

Kuon looked down at the pink painted nails and used his other hand to uncurl the death grip.

Presenting his megawatt smile he said "By all means be my guest **Aki-sensei**."

Nanokura tried to get her sensei out of the daze as the two people they were after had escaped.

"Kyoko-san!" he yelled trying to speed walk with his bike after he found her, after looking at all the streets near the café, but she either took no notice or choose to ignore him.

Either way he was not letting her get away that easily.

"Kyoko-san!"

"**Kyoko-san!**"

The boy licking his ice-cream on the other side of the street watched them with unrestrained curiosity.

"**Kyoko-san!**"

For such a small girl she sure could walk fast, thought Kuon as he gained momentum on her.

"**KYOKO-SAN!**"

"**STOP** calling my name!"

She stopped and whipped around to face him, anger darkly seeping out of her.

He stopped instantly too, looking at her.

The boy's eyes widened at the scary nee-chan, he took another lick of his ice-cream waiting to see who would make the first move, the nee-chan or the oji-san. The scary nee-chan would probably win though.

"You forgot the book and your cake" he said grinning, holding up both the book and cake box he had brought as he was leaving the café.

The boy waited with abated breath, completely having forgotten about the melting ice-cream, wondering what evil would befall the poor, clearly insane foreigner oji-san.

Kyoko looked at Kuon and Kuon stared back unashamed, still holding up the book and cake box in one hand while the other took care of precious Martha.

Kyoko bit her lip and Kuon blinked in awe but what happened next caught him and the ice-cream boy even more unaware.

Kyoko stomped her foot immaturely and slid down to the ground wailing.

"You're not fair Sensei!"

"Eh!" said both Kuon and the boy across the street.

Kuon was at a complete loss as to what had just occurred in a matter of minutes.

Tentatively, Kuon walked over to the crying girl on the ground for the second time that day.

"Kyoko-san?"

Kuon timidly reached out his hand to her but stopped short of actually touching her. Her hands covered her face and Kuon was bewildered, it certainly had not been his intention to make her cry or even to upset her like this.

"Kyoko-san" he whispered, praying she was not too distressed.

"Hmm?" came the reply and Kuon felt much lighter.

"This will probably sound silly, but is everything alright?"

She finally removed her hands and gave him a watery smile replying, "Everything is fine Sensei."

He knew everything was not fine but he decided not to push her… not just yet anyways, after all they had all the time in the world.

* * *

Hehehe hope you guys liked this one. I'll try posting the next chapter up faster but I make no promises.

Remember how I said I can't express my thanks besides saying it in different languages? Well I thought why not, there are non-english readers reading this so here goes.

Since the manga is of Japanese and since I'm kinda crazy about that language lets do that one first, also plz ignore the sentence structure, I know I might butcher it depending on the language.

**ありがとうございます ****FOR READING/FAVORITING/FOLLOWING/REVIEWING! YOU GUYS ARE WAY COOLS! **~_^

PS For those of you who can't read Japanese like me, it basically reads "Arigatou gozaimasu".


	5. Chapter 5

Well, looky who it is guys! Hehe, yes you are not dreaming, here's another chappy for you to read. Oh! However shall you guys manage? lol

Mistakes are the property of one "airplane-watchin"

**ENJOY!**

* * *

"Why were you with him?"

"I really don't see how it's any of your business."

"It is my business when you're making a fool of yourself in front of the whole school."

A scoff left her mouth "Don't be such a drama queen Sho, we both know that it's not very becoming, now get out of my way, unlike you I have work to do."

A frown came upon his face and his fingers pushed into the wall above her head even more, turning his skin whiter.

"Answer my question first," he necessitated.

"You'll get in trouble with Okami-san if she saw you bothering me."

She avoided his eyes, and he felt more irritated, where had the Kyoko he had known gone? It was hard to believe that she had changed in a few days. He put the blame on that bishounen school counselor, and he would bring back the old Kyoko.

A chuckled escaped from him "Oh yeah? Well, all I have to do is tell her that you're hanging around that gajin a little too much for your own good."

"Don't call him that" she seethed, finally looking at him.

"Why not?" he pushed, enjoying her displeasure.

"Because **Shotaro**, it's rude."

"Don't call me that."

The frown returned but Kyoko was unfazed as she raised her eyebrow at his demand.

"Are you going to move or not?"

Their closeness was bringing back memories that were better left in the dark; even now she could remember his hands on her skin, the warm fingers as they caressed her soft cheeks like the gentle breeze that caresses the clouds in the sky. Her heart clenched painfully, and once again she looked away from the brown eyes. He on the other hand was enjoying their closeness; her body heat was warming him in a soothing manner, which would probably leave his body purring if the closeness continued.

"Make me" and the arrogance in his voice broke the dreaded memories and without a second thought Kyoko took action.

Seconds later Sho howled in pain, gripping his quickly throbbing foot, as Kyoko walked away trying to keep the smugness off her face. Well there went his soothing heat.

Baka Sho she muttered as she walked to the kitchen. Why could he not just leave her alone?

Shaking away the thoughts that came up at that question Kyoko walked into the kitchen with the only thought of work.

Hours later when she lay in her futon looking up at the celling thinking of what she needed to do when she woke up, Kyoko's thoughts were invaded with the conversation she had with Hizuri-sensei coming back home.

He had as usual poked and prodded through her defense to get out what she had been hiding from him. It seemed that she just could not hide anything from him, where with everyone else she kept her heart closed; he could take a peek without much trouble.

She could not blame him completely though, there was something about him that made it especially easy for her to open up and although he teased her, he never made fun of her where it mattered most.

When she had asked him again why Wendy had to grow up, he earnestly answered her question and the rest of the walk had been spent discussing _Peter Pan_ and how well J.M. Barrie had woven the story. Still to Kyoko it was a depressing story, where the Disney movie had all the sparkle and fun to deviate slightly from the true meanings hidden in the book. The book on the other hand was different, and when Kyoko had explained to Sensei, he had not treated like a child, nor had he told her she was wrong. He didn't force her to accept his views and Kyoko found that to be refreshingly nice. Most adults around her took her pleasant manners to mean that her opinions were worth nothing.

Well if she were honest with herself it was not just the adults who disregarded her opinions it was people in her age group too. Kyoko did not know why what she said never seemed to make sense to most people.

Sensei had been different, mused Kyoko as her eyes closed on her for the night.

Speed walking in her work kimono the next morning, Kyoko reached her room and slid the shoji open. She walked in calmly and closed the door behind her and the second the door touched the wall a hurricane swept through the room.

Closing her skirt and grabbing her bag at the same time Kyoko opened the shoji door a bit too forceful and bumped right into someone.

Rubbing her nose she picked her bag and said sorry.

Sho grunted at her and Kyoko froze in place.

"Are you coming or what?" he asked annoyed.

"Not with you I'm not" said Kyoko, not sure as to why she would go with him to begin with, as she got up and walked away. Did he have to annoy her night and day? Was it not enough that they saw each other at school, but did he have to get in her way at the ryokan too?

"Hey! Hey Kyoko!"

Taking a deep breath Kyoko paused and turned around. It would not do to have the idiot screaming only to catch Okami-san attention, seeing as they were in the family's quarters.

"What?" she questioned tersely.

"I'm supposed to drop you off, let's go"

She watched him turn around without waiting for a reply.

The minute he started walking, she did the same too but she went in the other direction, sadly for her she did not get far, when Sho's hand gripped her shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going? I told you're coming with me, Okaa-san told me you're running late."

"So?"

"So she told me to drop you off."

Kyoko looked at him and then at his hand on her shoulders. When he did not remove his hand, she removed it and questioned.

"So?"

"What do you mean so?" asked a frustrated Sho.

"So what if she told you to drop me off? Since when do you actually listen to what she says? And why not just tell her you dropped me off like you usually do while I walk to school?" she stated without emotion and Sho gaped at her.

"I'm sure Mimori wouldn't mind if you gave her a ride" smirked Kyoko.

Sho blinked "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Maybe you should be asking yourself that."

With that Kyoko walked away but he called her out once again.

She ignored him and when she heard him walking towards her again she gripped her bag and took off, no longer caring if someone saw her running, or if Okami-san heard Sho screaming, after all she had always been better at getting out of trouble than Sho. Being Sho's mother Okami-san knew just what type of a boy he was.

"Hey!" yelled Sho as he chased after her.

Although this was Sho's home Kyoko knew the in-and-outs of the ryokan a little better.

Seeing the sharp turn that was about to come up she made the turn before Sho even knew what was happening.

She still needed her shoes, so she would have to circle back, but she could lose Sho that way too.

Barely avoiding the nakai with the tray of tea essentials, Kyoko opened the shoji of the room she knew was unused at the moment.

Sho saw her enter the room, but what he missed seeing was Kyoko opening the connecting shoji to the room next door.

When he entered he came into an empty room with an open veranda.

He grinned at the dead end Kyoko had put herself in. The small garden leading from the veranda lead nowhere, as it was a small enclosed garden that was there to border and beautify the open rooms. On the other side of the garden was a tall brick wall that ran around the whole of the ryokan.

While Sho walked at a leisurely pace to circle the small garden Kyoko silently walked out of the room beside the one she had entered in.

Knowing that Sho would eventually catch on she ran to where her shoes were kept. Just as she reached them she heard the obnoxious voice of Sho calling her name.

Slipping into her shoes, Kyoko ran straight for the wall in front of her.

"Kyoko!" came the thundering voice behind her, but she took no notice as she swung herself onto the low tree branch and jumped over the wall, skirt fluttering in flight.

As she ran she knew that Sho would never think to climb that tree or jump over the wall, if there was one thing she knew about Sho it was exerting his energy towards something he had no care for. A selfish guy like Sho would never bother with putting himself out there for the sake of others.

When she finally stopped running, Kyoko could not help but giggle at the face Sho had shown her when she spoke back to him.

She skipped giddy, with a lightness she had not felt in a while.

It felt good to finally follow her whims, small as they may be. Sho had no right to order her around.

When she had tried to hurt him physically it had not felt as good as it did now. Sure she was not trying to hurt him now, but to speak her mind had been simple bliss. She had always followed what Sho had told her, even when she did not agree with him, because she had always thought that he knew better. Sho would always know better because he was just that great of a person, or so she had thought. Well now she knew better.

Smiling without a care in the world she did not notice the man on the bicycle watching her as he came upon her.

"Ohayou gozaimasu Kyoko-san" greeted Hizuri-sensei as he slowed down upon reaching her.

Kyoko blinked up at the blond man and bowed in greeting.

"Ohayou gozaimasu Sensei"

"Any particular reason for the good mood Kyoko-san?"

She peered up at him "Am I not allowed to be happy without a reason Sensei?"

"No, certainly you have every reason to be happy when you choose but I thought perhaps there might be a reason behind your mood, and if there is none then please forgive my curiosity" said the laughing Sensei.

"I'm just happy" noted Kyoko as they walked together.

"That's good to hear"

When her eyes landed on her watch Kyoko gasped "Sensei if we don't hurry we'll be late!"

"Shall Martha and I give you a ride then?" asked Hizuri-sensei grinning as he pat his bicycle seat.

Kyoko scowled "No thank you Sensei."

Before he could protest she ran off, and to her dismay he breezed past her a few minutes later, surely inwardly laughing at her.

She watched him ride as she ran, the sun danced on his gold locks and if she didn't know any better he looked a floating fairy, as the sun blinded the bike out. Her heartbeat increased, whether it was the running or the fairy look alike in front of her, she could not say.

She reached the school thankfully with less than a minute to spare. She followed the last minute students as they all rushed to get to their classrooms before the homeroom teacher did.

She slid into her seat with a deep breath, only to catch the eyes of a very haughty looking Sho. Clearly he was happy that he made it to school before her, which came as no surprise to her, he had a car, and she had two feet. It sure did not take a genius to figure out which one would come first. As a bribe to keep him at home when he graduated junior high his parents had given him all sorts of things.

Fearing that they would lose their one and only child to the music industry of Tokyo, every year since ninth grade Sho had gotten a bribe. When he had threatened to run off in the beginning of this year his parents went and bought him a car of his choosing, but Kyoko knew that even with all these bribes he would not stay. He had told her, when they were still talking like proper human beings that once he graduated high school he was going off to Tokyo to pursue his dream of becoming a musician, no matter the consequences.

Coming back to reality she ignored his smirk as the sensei entered and they went about their business.

When lunch finally came around Kyoko relaxed, that is until Aki-sensei entered the room, gaining the attention of all the male students and some female.

"Mogami-san would you please come with me," she said pleasantly but Kyoko saw nothing pleasant about it. If anything it felt like a death warrant of some sorts.

Reluctantly she got out of her seat, passing some snickering girls on the way.

Well at least someone benefits from my misery she thought as the girls seemed pleased that she was in trouble.

Smiling softly Aki-sensei lead her down the hallway and all the way to the staff room, once inside they headed straight for the principal's office.

The teachers that had remained inside for lunch watched as Aki-sensei and Kyoko went closer to the principal's office.

The dread looming around Kyoko increased tenfold in about mere seconds as she entered the office.

She had never gotten in trouble like this before; sure she had gotten in trouble, but not to the point that she was called to the principal's office. She hoped they would not call Okami-san.

Waiting for her in the office was not the principal but the vice principal and Kyoko worried even more, if the whispers of the school were anything to go by, the vice principal was harsher than the principal.

Kyoko bowed deeply as Aki-sensei stood off to one side.

"Mogami-san is it?" he questioned blandly.

"Hai, Kyoto-sensei" she stated softly, looking more towards the floor than at him.

"What is this I hear about you bothering Hizuri-sensei in inappropriate places?"

Her heartbeat rising with every passing moment Kyoko could only stare at the middle aged man in front of her.

"Didn't your parents teach you any better?" Not waiting for a reply he continued on "Hizuri-sensei is not here for your disposal only, he was hired by the school for all the students, do you understand Mogami-san?"

Kyoko nodded numbly, as the words 'your parents' echoed unmercifully in her head. Aki-sensei cleared her throat delicately.

"You mustn't put so much blame on Mogami sir; after all she does not have the advantages of all the other students of this school. She resides at the Fuwa ryokan sir," she said putting careful emphasis on the last sentence.

Morikami Muramasa looked at Aki-sensei and back at Kyoko before nodding in understanding.

"Well Mogami-san you will need to understand that behavior such as this will not be tolerated at this school."

Kyoko was at a loss, the newly discovered rebellious part of her wanted to deny anything this man was saying but years being respectful could not be lost in a matter of minutes, nor could she come out of this without feeling like she was putting the blame on Hizuri-sensei. He had been the one to take her to the café, but only because as usual she had made such a big fool of herself in front of him once again.

She did not know what to do, and the smile on Aki-sensei's face was making her more agitated, though she did not let it show.

"Perhaps a proper penalty will lead Mogami to the right path Morikami-san?"

"What do you suggest Aki?"

"She should-"

A brief knock on the door interrupted Aki-sensei, as she looked at the door.

"Yes?"

"It's Momose Kyoto-sensei, may I come in? I understand that Mogami-san is in there."

Kyoto-sensei bid her to come in, puzzled as to why Momose-sensei wanted to come in.

When Momose-sensei entered the room, some of the pressure lifted and Kyoko could breathe a little easier, she did not know why.

Looking straight at Kyoto-sensei with the most calming face Kyoko had ever seen, Momose-sensei started speaking.

"Please forgive me in advance if I'm being assuming, but if Mogami-san is here due to her being in a café yesterday than I must take all the blame Kyoto-sensei."

All three occupants of the room looked at her in various degrees of shock as Momose-sensei bowed.

Aki-sensei was the first to recover.

"What can you possibly mean?" came the chilly inquiry.

Momose-sensei got up and looked at Aki-sensei "Aki-sensei, it was my fault that Mogami-san was at the café yesterday. If I may explain?"

She looked over at Kyoto-sensei and he waved for her to continue, but Aki-sensei did not seem happy about this.

"Well you see I had to talk to Mogami-san about something so I asked her to meet me at the café, but sadly I could not make it and not having Mogami-san's contact information I could not relay to her that I might would be able to keep our appointment. But thankfully I did have Hizuri-sensei's number and I knew he lived in the same area and I asked him as a favor if he would deliver my message to Mogami-san. Being as kind as he is, he agreed, and that is how Aki-sensei happened upon the two. So you see Kyoto-sensei Mogami-san was not bothering anyone, if I anything I believe I put her through a bit of trouble."

"How do you explain the tea Hizuri-sensei had? Or the cake that he ordered for Mogami?" questioned Aki-sensei as if this was a life and death police case.

Momose-sensei laughed good-naturedly "Oh come now Aki-sensei, it's not a crime to order tea at a café that is known for its wonderful tea, and the cake was ordered upon my request, I had to apologize to Mogami-san for putting her through such trouble did I not? And what better way to apologize than buying her a slice of cake? Surely you can't see harm in some cake do you?"

Eyes beseeching innocently at the pair of adults in the room, Kyoto-sensei fell first and probably last if Aki-sensei's look was anything to go by.

"Yes, you are right Momose," standing up from his seat Kyoto-sensei let them to leave, pride not letting him apologize to Kyoko for the misunderstanding.

Momose-sensei thanked him and shepherded Kyoko out of the room before Aki-sensei had a chance to bring out her fangs.

Once they were out of the staff room Momose-sensei laugh breathlessly and smiled at Kyoko.

"Well I'm glad that's over, aren't you Mogami-san?"

Kyoko nodded numbly as she stared at her sensei.

"You had best get back to class, as lunch will soon be over Mogami-san."

Off went Momose-sensei and Kyoko started at her. Pinching her arm to make sure she was not hallucinating. Kyoko walked to class, wondering what the heck just happened in the staff room.

How had Momose-sensei known she was there? She had not been at her desk in the staff room when Kyoko had entered with Aki-sensei in the beginning, nor had Kyoko seen her as they had walked from the classroom to the staff room. So how had she known where Kyoko was? Did she perhaps ask the students in the classroom? Even then Aki-sensei had never specifically said that she was taking Kyoko to the staff room only that she wanted Kyoko to come with her.

How could she have known? And why did she defend Kyoko like that? Better yet how had she known what had happened at the café? Had Mimori gone and told everyone? Was it school gossip now? Did everyone know that she had gone to a café with Hizuri-sensei? Did that mean that Hizuri-sensei was also in trouble?

Each new questions giving way to a new level of worry, Kyoko got to her class with ten minutes of lunch left.

She took her seat only to have Mimori come stand in front of her seat with her arms folded on her chest joy covering her face.

"So what did you get? Did they suspend you? Or were you expelled?"

She laughed happily "That's what you get for being such a pain, honestly you're like a leech once someone is nice to you, you think that they like you or something."

Kyoko looked up with burning eyes and ordered, not in the disposition to deal with her "Shut the hell up Mimori."

A few of the students around Kyoko moved their seats as far as possible. Mogami Kyoko was as strange as they come, and being caught in the middle of her fights was never a pleasant experience, just ask one Ishibashi Hikaru, the poor freshman had no clue what he had slipped into when Kyoko had been dealing with Matsunai Ruriko from class 3-A.

This caused Mimori to burst into giggles "I don't think you realize where you stand Mogami-san, you can't tell me what to do, but I on the other hand can pretty much get away with whatever I feel like doing to you. Everyone here knows just how crazy you are, and it's my word over yours."

With that she grabbed a fistful of Kyoko's hair and whipped out a pair of scissors.

"Who will be cutting whose hair now Mogami?"

She leaned down with a vicious glare and Kyoko gripped her chair, willing her demons not to spew forth.

"Leave her alone Mimori" came the suave voice and some of the girls glared at Kyoko for getting saved by the class's idol, never mind that Kyoko never asked for his help, nor did she want it.

Mimori pouted up at Sho "But Sho-chan, she's so annoying."

Sho rolled his eyes "I don't think that a good enough reason to cut her hair Mimori. Give me the scissors."

Kyoko took deep breaths, ignoring the sniggering that was coming from some of her classmates, and tried to concentrate on keeping her anger in check.

"But Sho-chan, she's such a slut, first she chases after you and now she's chasing after that baka school counselor."

Sho's arm stopped trying to reach for the scissors at Mimori's words.

"What?" he choked out.

Mimori nodded, happy to disappoint Sho when it came to Kyoko "Yeah she was si-"

**SLAP!**

The sound resonated around the room as all forms of noises were paused.

Mimori dropped the scissors and Kyoko's hair as both of her hands went to her reddening cheek.

"I told you to shut up didn't I Mimori?"

Sho watched in avid surprise at the change in his childhood friend.

He had seen Kyoko mad before, but never like this. Her bright eyes were seeping with darkness and the room had plunged into a suffocating foreboding that did nothing to help. More than one person shivered in fear watching the angry girl.

"Waaaa! Sho-chan!" Mimori flew into the arms of the unsuspecting Sho.

Sho stood frozen as Mimori cried on his chest. He watched Kyoko, as did everyone else in the class. He could not, would not believe that this was his Kyoko. His Kyoko who was more sunshine and rainbows than she was doom and gloom. This was not Kyoko.

"What in the world is going on here?" demanded Nakajima-sensei, as she entered the classroom for a history lesson.

All eyes landed back on the still standing Kyoko.

Instantly Nakajima-sensei was bombarded with various accounts of what had happened, but each of these storytellers emphasized the blame Kyoko took in the situation.

Vexed with the amount of voices coming into her ears Nakajima-sensei put the classroom back in order in minutes. All the students were made to go back to their proper seats, Mimori was ordered "politely" to stop crying and to take her seat after it had been deemed that nothing beside her pride had been hurt. Kyoko along with Mimori was told to come to the staff room after their classes had ended. Mimori's protest died on her pretty little lips when Nakajima-sensei gave her a no- nonsense look. Kyoko on the other hand took with everything with an easy stride, ignoring not only her classmates stares, but also Mimori's piercing scowl, and Sho's probing gawk, though he would say it was a glance, nothing more.

All in all the rest of the class period went by without much trouble; if you do not count Nakajima-sensei throwing the blackboard eraser at Toshiro-san's sleeping head. Poor Toshiro-san.

When her last class ended Kyoko quickly put everything she needed into her bag and made a hasty exit. She knew that Sho wanted to talk to her but she was not in the temperament, thankfully during breaks between classes his friends had kept him too busy to come to her, but now there were no obstacles for him.

As she left she managed to hear Mimori tell her friends that she was not going to the staff room because she had done nothing wrong, not surprising thought Kyoko as she walked out into the hallway.

She walked quickly, avoiding the other students coming out of the classrooms.

"Well hello there Kyoko dear" whispered the cold voice as an arm came around her shoulders.

"Leave me alone you harassing beagle!"

"Oh my! Such anger you display my akazukin-chan. Heard you were magnificent in class today."

Kyoko shrugged off the arm and glared at Vuiguru Reino, Goth prince extraordinaire. Her glare made his heart skip a beat and in response he sent her a smile, a smile which did affect some passing female students. Too bad for Reino though, it had the opposite effect on Kyoko.

"Since when do you listen to gossip beagle?" asked Kyoko snidely.

"Since it involves you unleashing your breathtaking power akazukin-hime" he noted that her glare had increased, oh what this girl did to him!

"I think you need a session with Hizuri-sensei you pervert" she said with a pointed look and with that she walked away.

"Who's Hizuri-sensei?" he yelled after her but she neglected his question, leaving him dejected.

"Better luck next time ne?" comforted his cousin Vuiguru Miroku, patting Reino on the back as they watched the black haired girl walk away.

* * *

Ok first things first, but bear with me plz cuz this will be a long A/N. I have no clue what's Sho's eye color, (gasp!), I know, I should know this being a crazed Skip Beat fan, but alas I do not, so I left it as "brown" cuz I did research it and a couple of places said "brown" but I'm not convinced cuz if I can't find it in the manga or the Fan book(the pages that I found anyways) then I'm not sold that his eyes are brown. So if anyone knows and has proof then please tell me.

Next on the list...umm...I forgots...

anywhoots, Renio is in this chapter! hahaha I love him to bits and pieces and I know some ppl don't really like him but I think he's too cool! Eeeepp! ok fan girl moment over.

Also, don't know if you guys care or not, but when I started writing this I wanted to keep it strictly "english" but I can't help but insert japanese words, cuz it feels more familiar for me, so if guys have a problem then plz tell me. And i wanna clarify that the vice principal's name is "**Morikami Muramasa**" (surname shamelessly stolen from bleach, see if any other shamelessly stolen names pop up hehe) but in Japan, according to what I was reading, VPs are called "**kyoto-sensei**" so yeah, don't know if that's 100% accurate but yeah.

**"akazukin-(hime/chan)"** can be roughly roughly translated into little red riding hood, or more along the lines of red hood?

Ah I memebered what I forgot! For those of you wonderful people who are leaving me reviews without signing in, can you please please just tell me if that is your real username or not, or leave ur real username in the review so i can thank you? I know logging in can be a darn hassle sometimes but I really really wanna personally thank you, and I don't wanna PM a random person lol

**감사합니다 (kam-sa-ham-nida) for Reading/Favoriting/Reviewing/Following! Whoot!** Korean! Now I can read that and understand! I guess school does go to some good ;)


	6. Chapter 6

YAY! chapter six! Lol

Ok is it weird that I love this Kuon? I know it sounds narcissistic but he's just soooo easy to write and he's just sooo cools! Haha still Sensei is awesome for making such an awesome character, he's so flexible and fairly easy to work with.

You know who else is awesome? You GUYS! Seriously I heart you peeps! The responses I'm getting are just surreal for me, and i just get all giddy thinking about it, hehehe.

Mistakes are mine...for the taking...hmm that was a from a song...'mine for the taking'...or was it a story..hmmm...

**ENJOY!**

* * *

Kuon pondered, did she have bad luck? Is that what it was? Was it possible to be in such trouble after having just got out of trouble? A onetime string of bad events, or just pure lifelong bad luck? Was karma involved? Oh boy, he hoped not.

And what was up with this full court scene? Was it really necessary for all these teachers to be here? Obviously small disputes between teenage girls required twenty some odd teachers to pass on judgment. How droll…

He watched with interest as Nanokura Mimori was dragged into the room by Aki Shoko, after the occupants of the room had patiently waited for her arrival. When there was no sign of her Aki-san had valiantly volunteered to go get her. Much like a pet owner bringing the naughty pet back home, reflected Kuon.

In middle of all this sat Kyoko, without missing a beat or showing any emotion for that matter, considered Kuon. He watched her skillfully, bringing no attention to himself or to her. Her poise even in that rather uncomfortable looking chair was elegant as could be. Did the girl never have a moment where she did not look like she just stepped out of a traditional kimono magazine or something? His mother would probably love her on the spot for her staid posture. Posture was one of the main essential for modeling and with a few small pointers Kyoko could very well aim for that industry, though her interest probably lay somewhere else. Too bad okaa-san, perhaps some other time ne?

"Shall we begin," Kyoto-sensei stood, trying to disconcert the girls in front of him. Nanokura pouted in displeasure and Kyoko looked as serene as ever.

Perhaps she should be an actress, Kuon further deliberated, father would surely enjoy her presence, Lory would too for that matter. Two crazy people meeting with one interesting person…oh yeah nothing wrong could occur from such a meeting. Perhaps it would be better not to think about all three people in the same room, not yet anyways.

Let the games begin thought Kuon as Kyoto-sensei continued speaking. He watched Aki keeping her face as impassive as possible. Nanokura was not doing much better though, she was seemingly piqued.

"Mogami-san let's begin with you first shall we? You slapped Nanokura-san and you threatened to cut off her hair once again."

"I did not" came the calm reply.

Gasps filled the room, the most dramatized, naturally came from Aki. Kyoko Mogami had spoken back to an adult, and not any adult, the Kyoto-sensei! The shock! What was the world coming to?!

"Excuse me?" barked Kyoto-sensei, not happy to be 'mistreated' like this.

"I did not threaten to cut Mimori's hair this time around."

"We have your classmates who say otherwise **Mogami!**"

And there goes any proof that Kyoto-sensei is a reasonable man, deduced Kuon as all forms of sense left the vice principal.

"I didn't" she stubbornly looked back at the irate Kyoto-sensei. Her eyes never wavered from the beginning, gold swirling about in tranquility.

"Are you saying we are lying?" He nose flared in anger.

No reply was forthcoming, that is until Nanokura started crying. Oh god.

"How could you be so cruel Mogami-san, you were being mean to me and now you're being mean to my precious classmates by calling them liars."

Kuon brought a half closed fist to his mouth to stop the smile that was dying to erupt from his lips, perhaps I have got this wrong all along he surmised.

Nanokura might be better suited to be an actress than Kyoko. Not that he believed that she could be a better actress but with her wily ways she could most likely navigated through the industry with little to no trouble. Kyoko on the other hand would have a fifty-fifty chance of either drowning in her innocence or unintentionally using that innocence to her full advantage. Well things were certainly becoming more interesting.

On went the trial, with Aki, Nanokura, and Kyoto-sensei closing in on Kyoko. The other teachers watched with some trepidation but said not a word.

Kuon debated when he could step in without gaining more attention from Aki, she had been watching him in anticipation when the whole ordeal started. Damn the woman. If not for Kyoko, the tables would have turned on Aki so fast she would never have had a chance to even think of retaliating.

"This has gone on far too long sir!" Aki passionately rose and with her hands on the conference table she continued "This is not the first time Mogami has abused a student, and it won't be the last I'm sure! Since she was never properly punished for her past behavior it would seem that she has taken that as a sign to do whatever she wishes!"

"But Aki-sensei" came the timid voice of Momose "Perhaps we should ask Mogami-san why she is doing this rather than assuming that she's misbehaving for the sake of misbehaving."

"Or perhaps we should just let Mogami go on with this juvenile behavior Momose" noted Aki sarcastically.

"Or maybe we should go with Momose's suggestion" drawled Kijima Hidehito. Kuon perked up at his voice, Hidehito never went out his way to cause a ruckus, and sure enough the glance he threw to the grateful Momose was all Kuon needed to figure out why he spoke up at all.

Then the voices of the other teachers erupted, some defending Kyoko, and some agreeing with Aki.

As they argued back and forth Kuon took his cue, seeing that Aki was too preoccupied to give him the time of day.

"Nakajima-sensei?" he whispered to the quiet middle aged woman he had taken a seat next to, when he entered the room.

Nakajima-sensei pulled her eyes away from the bickering to look over at her neighbor.

"Hai, Hizuri-sensei?"

"Forgive me, but do you mind telling me what happened exactly? You see Kyoto-sensei gave me a rather brief explanation and did not quite explain clearly as to what had happened."

She quietly told him what she had encountered when she came to class 3-C to teach history.

Kuon listened patiently and when she finished he thanked her and put on his thinking face, noticing his concentration Nakajima-sensei asked him if something was amiss.

"Hmm? Oh no, nothing of great importance you see" he replied lightly. A brief pause occurred until Kuon started speaking again, keeping his voice as mild as possible.

"Nakajima-sensei I hope you don't mind me asking a question?"

"No, I don't mind please go ahead"

"Was Mogami-san holding a pair of scissors in her hands when you entered the classroom?"

"Scissors?"

"Yes"

Nakajima-sensei said not a word as she thought back, Kuon waited patiently looking at the amusement going on in front of him. Kyoko's eyes landed on his and he send her a comforting smile, she looked away but he could have gleefully sworn that he saw those cheeks of hers tint red.

Looking back at Nakajima-sensei he saw that she had her answer.

"No Hizuri-sensei. When I entered the classroom Mogami-san did not have scissors in her hand."

"I see" was all the answer she received and when nothing else came she asked quickly.

"Why do you ask? The scissors were found under her desk Hizuri-sensei" she expounded.

Kuon smiled gently "Nakajima-sensei has Mogami-san ever misbehaved in your class without reason?"

This time the history teacher did not need to think and so she shook her head immediately "No, she never misbehaved…even when there was…reason to…"

She trailed off, but Kuon knew he had hit a nerve.

"Expulsion would be the most proper punishment for such a severe case sir!" claimed Aki during the argument, bringing all the noise to a lull.

Kuon examined his fingers as Nakajima-sensei spoke up.

"Aki-sensei I think we may be mistaken."

"How so?" asked Aki with deliberate sweetness, trying to keep her emotions in check. No doubt concluded Koun, wishing that people would not interrupt her 'suggestions' for putting Kyoko in her place.

"Well it just occurred to me that when I walked into the classroom Mogami-san did not have scissors in her hands."

"And?" questioned the impatient Aki.

"And I have never known Mogami-san to misbehave in my class, and I believe that goes for most of her other teachers too, so perhaps there is some misunderstanding here. Or maybe the students were mistaken in what had happened. Perhaps we should reaffirm with the students as to what happened? "

Looking at her co-workers she was happy to see most of them nodding or murmuring in agreement.

"Are you saying we should let Mogami do what she wants Nakajima-san?"

Nakajima-sensei looked at Kyoto-sensei, not happy with his phrasing.

"I believe that Nakajima-sensei is saying no such thing" said Kuon looking up at the incensed Kyoto-sensei.

Nakajima-sensei send him a grateful look as every other person looked at him.

Kyoto-sensei raised his eyebrow at Kuon.

"Care to explain yourself Hizuri?"

"Why thank you Kyoto-sensei I'll be more than happy too."

Kuon got up grinning with ease, and walked to where the two girls were seated.

Aki watched him like a predator and to her utter puzzlement Kuon stopped in front of Nanokura.

"Mimori-san?"

"Hai?" she sniffed, still keeping up with her act. How noble.

Kuon kneeled in front of her and asked "Mogami-san did threaten to cut your hair off didn't she?"

"Hai" she all but whimpered.

"With a razor the first time, if my memory is correct?"

A nod was all that came this time.

"You must have been really scared."

"I was" she whispered finally looking into his eyes.

Kuon smiled slowly, "What did she use this time?"

"Scissors"

"You must have been scared this time too?"

A small blush spread over her cheeks but before she could answer Aki interrupted.

"What exactly is the point of this Hizuri-san? Clearly we have already discussed what has happened, if you were not paying attention then there really is no need for you to be here."

Kuon did glanced back to face Aki, "Aki-sensei for once in your life please exercise some patience, and I will get to the point soon."

Although miffed, Aki kept her mouth shut.

Turning back to Nanokura with a smile on his face, he continued "Now where were we Mimori-san, ah yes I was asking if you were scared today too?"

"I was Hizuri-sensei" she answered demurely.

"I see, can you tell me why Mogami-san used a pair of scissors this time around?"

Nanokura blinked and Kuon never changed face.

"Umm…because…I don't know" she said stuttering.

"Before she used a razor, which makes sense seeing as how you were in art class, but Mimori-san what would she be doing with a pair of scissors in history class?"

Stealing a frantic look at Aki, Nanokura looked back at him and answered quickly.

"It was lunch time Hizuri-sensei."

"Ah! So it was, my apologies for forgetting," Kuon looked down in shame.

Nanokura sighed in relief and Kuon smiled once again as he looked up.

"Mimori-san do you carry scissors in your pencil case?"

"No" came the swift answer.

Kuon continued looking at Nanokura but asked "Mogami-san do you carry scissors in your pencil case?"

"No"

"Why not?"

"There's no need for them. Razors are more than enough."

"No need for them…do you feel the same way Mimori-san?"

She fidgeted but answered with a small yes.

"Then why do you think Mogami-san had those pair of scissors?"

"To cut my hair with!" Nanokura exclaimed, glad to be on familiar ground again.

"I did not!" blurted Kyoko.

Kuon continued his watch of Nanokura, never taking his eyes off.

"That's because Sho-chan stopped her!" she retaliated.

"He did not!" Kyoko stood up glaring down at Nanokura.

"Sit down Mogami-san" ordered Kuon.

"But-"

"Sit."

She sat, not pleased with the look he had sent her. Mimori looked extremely satisfied.

Kuon put his chin in his left hand and tilted his head still watching Nanokura.

"Mimori-san can you please tell me what happened in class today, from the beginning?"

"Certainly Kyoto-sensei has already filled you in Hizuri-san."

Kuon sighed, "Aki-sensei, I'd rather hear the story straight from Mimori-san here" looking back at Nanokura he gestured for her to start.

Start she did, from her repeated innocence to Kyoko's horrible antics that would scar her for life.

Kuon played his part well, nodding, smiling, and gasping in the appropriate places.

When she finished her flourished tale Kuon stood up and looked at Nakajima-sensei.

"Is this how the story went Nakajima-sensei?"

"More or less…."she trailed off, unsure of what had really passed.

"I see" with that Kuon stood up and leaned against the conference table still facing the girls, with is back to the teachers, and pulled out a pair of scissor from his pocket.

He twirled them in the air and Kijima rolled his eyes.

"Do you know what these are Mimori-san?"

She looked at Kuon and rolled her eyes.

"A pair of scissors" she said dead-panned.

"Yes they are" pausing for a moment, Kuon continued "do you see anything special about this pair of scissors?"

"No, why should I?" huffed Nanokura impatiently.

Kuon shrugged and stated nonchalantly "Oh I don't, I suppose I hoped you would recognize them seeing as how these are the same scissors that you claim Mogami-san threatened you with."

"How is any of this relevant Hizuri-san?" snapped Aki.

"Hizuri-sensei, Aki-sensei is right please hurry this along. We don't have all day."

Kuon nodded to the Kyoto-sensei.

He faced the teachers, held up the scissors and said plainly.

"These scissors come from the library, as you can see they have been labeled on the inside of the handle. And as you may or may not know the scissors borrowed from the library are recorded. The borrower's name is noted down when they borrow them and they must be returned the same day and the borrower's name is crossed out with a single line if they are brought back. During lunch one Nanokura Mimori borrowed this pair of scissors from the library and returned them later on in the day."

Before Kuon could continue Nanokura screeched from behind him.

"I DID NOT!"

Kuon merely raised his eyebrow at her, and Aki interjected.

"We cannot speculate foolish theories Hizuri-san without concrete proof."

Oh yes, and I'm sure your way of going about this is perfectly accurate scorned Kuon internally.

"Which is exactly why I have concrete proof Aki-sensei."

With that Kuon walked to the door and put his head out to call someone in.

Ootomo Honoka walked in harmoniously and Kuon motioned for her to follow him to the front of the room.

"This is Ootomo Honoka, the library representative who was there during lunch today. Honoka-san did Mimori-san come and borrow a pair of scissors during lunch and return them later during the day?"

Honoka glanced at the fuming Nanokura and said yes.

"That hardly proves anything Hizuri-san!"

Kuon slowly turned to her and without due warning sent her a blinding smile, which spontaneously shut her up quite nicely.

"Now as Honoka-san stated, Nanokura-san did borrow scissors and return them."

"But Hizuri-sensei what does this prove?" asked the Kyoto-sensei.

What do you think it proves you dimwit, thought Kuon irritated with the stupidity this man always seemed to resonate.

"I believe that Honoka-san can give insight to something else which will make more sense. Did Mogami-san or any of her other classmates borrow any scissors from the library anytime this week, Honoka-san?"

"No, I looked at the list we have Hizuri-sensei, and there is no record of anyone from class 3-C borrowing scissors this week except for Nanokura."

Kuon thanked Ootomo and told her that she may leave, once the door closed behind her he said, "Thus this proves that Mogami-san did not intimidate Nanokura-san during history today, or at least not with a pair of scissors threatening to cut off her hair."

"She did too!"

Kuon faced Nanokura and smirked.

"Shall we call in your classmates and see just who threatened who? I'm sure after seeing the evidence their forgotten memories will righten themselves and we shall miraculously know what actually happened in the classroom. I mean unless you gave those pair of scissors Mogami-san just so she could threaten you? Hmm?"

Nanokura gulped and tried her best to bluff her way out of this but alas she was no match for Kuon.

Slowly Nanokura sat down at Kuon's confident smile.

Aki on the other hand would not be brought down that easily.

"So you are saying we should let Mogami run rampant?"

"Please do not put words in my mouth Aki-sensei, I said no such thing, but your rather anxious desire to expel an aspiring student with little evidence and obvious bias makes me wonder if there is another reason behind this façade."

The look he gave her, unsettle her but she stood straighter and replied back coldly "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing much, just that if we were to punish Mogami-san than I think it would be best to give her detention, and let's not forget that Nanokura-san deserves some blame too. Falsifying an event to frame her classmate is hardly appropriate behavior. Perhaps a session with me would do her some good, right Kyoto-sensei?"

The man nodded, not wanting to look any more like a fool in front of all the other teachers.

"Yes, yes I do think you are right Hizuri-san. Well then if everyone agrees we shall go with Hizuri-san's plan."

No one had any objection, though Kuon was mildly surprised that Aki voiced not a word.

The teachers filed out when everything was said and done, and Kyoko and Nanokura followed them out. The former walked passed without a glance at him, and Kuon felt hurt. Perhaps she was mad at how he had treated her today.

Nanokura on the other hand pouted in what she deemed to be an adorable manner but Kuon gave her no response, if she wanted to be childish that was her business.

Following the two girls Kuon walked out of the room but he did not get far as those annoying pair of fingers latched onto his arm once again. Curse!

"We need to talk."

Not waiting for a reply Aki walked on, as Kuon rubbed his poor arm.

Drama queen muttered Kuon in his head, but follow her he did.

She opted for an empty room and waited for him to come in.

Kuon walked in with his hands in his pockets. He looked around while Aki stood by the windows, hands crossed on her chest.

When he was done surveying the room, Kuon rocked on his heels slowly and looked expectantly at Aki.

If she was waiting for him to begin, she was sorely mistaken.

He watched her, she watched him. More watching ensued. Joy.

Peeved that he would not bend Aki finally spoke.

"What do you think you are doing?"

Kuon blinked and glanced left and right naively.

"Umm talking with you I suppose?"

"You know that's not what I mean" snarled Aki.

"You know you kinda look like a hissing cat right now, not a pretty picture. At all," pointed out Kuon, ignoring her statement without much thought.

Aki froze, and then glared in such a manner Kuon was sure her head would pop clear off her neck.

Kuon put his hands up in defense "Hey don't get mad at me, I'm just saying. You really shouldn't snarl like that, it's not very attractive, and you know you're an all-around attractive person, except for the whole witch mode you have going on for you."

Aki fumed at his aloof attitude and bit out "Witch mode?"

Kuon nodded a bit too enthusiastically for the moment and waved his hands about, "Yeah, you know when you get all witchy and go on some rampage."

Her arms left her chest and stiffened by her side as her hands curled into fists.

"Rampage" she muttered dangerously, completely red-faced now.

Kuon remained passive but inner Kuon was having the time of his life! God, this woman was way too easy.

"Yes, rampage. I mean I don't know if you know but people worry about you when go and do something silly like that. Really is there any need for you to go all Stalin on the students sometimes? And the way you have the Kyoto-sensei around you very sharp fingers doesn't help the rumor mill either. Oh speaking of fingers you seriously might want to think about changing your manicurist; I know a great one who would do wonders for those torture devises you call nails."

"How dare you" seethed Aki while Kuon remained as innocuously serious as ever.

"How dare I what? Oh I'm sorry! Forgive me, I meant no offense to your nails…or your manicurist for that matter, I'm sure both are wonderful but you know one shouldn't let personal attachments from seeing the truth. Can you imagine if everybody in this world were that oblivious to faults, we'd have one messed up world, well not that it's not going to hell in a hand basket right now, but at least we can still boast of some humility."

Kuon stood rooted on the spot, he knew he had pushed her over the edge and when she came at him he took it with ease.

The slap she aimed for his symmetrical cheek never reached its target as Kuon caught that wrist fluidly and when her other hand came at him too, he did the same.

Grinning down at the woman he leaned in as close as possible and breathed hotly.

"Now, now Aki-san we wouldn't want Fuwa-san to see you like this now would we?"

She stiffened considerably and her breathing increased uncomfortably as she gasped at his statement.

Kuon's grin turned into a smirk at her reaction. Using her wrist to pull her closer he continued to whisper.

"This is why I said that you really shouldn't act like such a witch, it's not flattering, and we both know how materialistic Fuwa can be."

"How?" she choked out.

Releasing her wrist Kuon stepped back and lost all mirth.

"It wasn't hard" he shrugged.

He watched her contemplate his answer and suddenly she stood straighter.

"It was Mogami wasn't it?" she asked with narrow eyes.

Kuon laughed and asked "Seriously what do you have against Mogami?"

"Tell me" questioned Aki roughly not in the mood for his antics.

"No paranoia-san, Mogami-san did not tell unlike you she does have strong moral values, and plus why would you think she would tell me? Does she know that you and Fuwa are an item?" he asked accusingly.

Aki looked away and that pricked at Kuon.

"Well?" he tried to keep his rising emotions in check.

"I don't know" sighed Aki, her shoulders sagging "I don't know, sometimes it seems like she knows and other times…I don't know."

Kuon frowned, that answer did not please him…at all.

"Leave her alone" he said evenly and turned to walk out of the room.

"Wait!"

He turned back to face her and stated unwaveringly "I think you had best worry about your own circumstance rather than meddling in the students business. I'm tired of sorting out all the problems my students have because of you. Don't take my words lightly Aki, unless you really want your life to be a living hell."

He walked out, aggravated, leaving Aki to grab the nearest chair and fall into it unceremoniously.

Kuon stopped mid-step and took a deep breath. Dragging his fingers through his hair, he had to wonder once again if the world was out to get the riveting Mogami Kyoko.

* * *

Hehe I feel bad for Aki, I don't hate her but I was too lazy to make up a new character so she's the evil witch in this story. Sorry Aki...though I hate your charge so maybe there's a psychological reason why i picked you out of all the others.

**شکریہ for Following/Reading/Reviewing/Favoriting! Ok so this fanfic doc is being annoying but the words means thanks (or thank you) in Urdu, pronounced as Shook-ri-ya. ^_^**


	7. Chapter 7

Well...its been like..a long time? lol Gomen blame baking, gardening, and more importantly korean dramas ( i seriously i have problem with those there should be an AA for korean drama-holics like me)

Seriously sorry guys, don't know what happened but here it is...short...

Mistakes are mine cuz I'm too lazy listening to "Jaywalking" to actually proofread this right now. By the way the song is awesome if you like deep tempting voices. ;D Sung Joon you tease.

**ENJOYS!**

* * *

Kuon moved through the double doors mechanically, glad that the day had finally ended.

After his little "talk" with Aki, he could barely concentrate on the work at hand. He was put out of sorts and if there was one thing Kuon hated it was being put out of sorts. It was not that he liked perfect order or control he just did not like having the floor pulled out from under him.

This situation or whatever it was, was unbalancing him. He should not feel this way, he should not care so much. She was his concern but so were the other students who came to see him and it was obvious where she stood and where everyone else did on the scale.

Frustration had finally led him to pack his bag and head out home. He would get nothing done if all he could do was sit in his chair and get distracted every few minutes with worry. Worry for her. Only her.

For more times than he could count he wondered if she knew about Aki and Fuwa, which would certainly explain some of her odd behavior.

Not in the mood to ride his bike he unlocked Martha and walked out of the school grounds at a rather low pace.

Did he care too much? Maybe he was just being paranoid about all of this. Maybe he should find himself a girlfriend. Snickering he shook his head at the silly idea. Getting a girlfriend would do nothing but add on to this "problem", and then there was also the added fact of dealing with not only his dad and Lory but his mother too. He does not know how it happens but somehow one of those three always manages to find out when he is in a relationship.

God a girlfriend was completely not what he needed right now.

Perhaps a shrink would help….a shrink seeing a shrink about his patient….how queer and so Sopranos-ish.

Better yet he should just man up and stop acting like a teenage girl with a crush. Yep that sounded like a good plan as any, definitely better than plan A of getting into a relationship.

Too busy trying to convince himself that he cared about Mogami Kyoko as he did any other student Kuon did not see the hand reach out from the side alley and grab him.

Before he could so much as blink Martha was pulled out of his hands and he was pinned to a wall.

Kuon looked down at his abductor and all thoughts of keeping Mogami Kyoko at a distance flew out the window merrily.

"Are you an idiot?"

"Well hello to you too Kyoko-san" he said looking down, trying not to smile but failing miserably somewhere along the way.

He was suffocating rather nicely in those aurous eyes of hers. Damn.

"Don't you dare try to change the subject with that fake smile of yours," she snapped.

He gasped and put on his best hurt impression.

"I'm deeply hurt that you would think like that Kyoko-san."

Was it him, or did he like saying her name a little too much for his own sanity?

Her grip on his wrist and shirt tightened as she came closer and weirdly enough he found the whole thing to be completely erotic.

Ah there goes his sanity, but it was not his fault, her closeness and the warm fingers around his skin were doing wonders on his poor heart. Can you blame a guy when a teenage girl all but shoves him against a wall in a slightly darkened alley and looks at him with passion? Okay. Fine, she was pissed at him but still there was a big show of emotion there and who cares for the finer details when you have a blazing vixen practically molding your form. Add to this the fact that if anyone happened to cross the alley, they would come upon a completely misunderstood scene. A grown man held up against the wall, by a high school girl in a provocative manner. Oh my.

Let the record show that Kyoko, in actuality was not a vixen nor was she manhandling Kuon in an improper manner….well okay she might have been manhandling him somewhat…or a lot…but in her defense the rather amorous picture Kuon was painting was a bit exaggerated, seeing how she was pissed at him and she most certainly was not that close to mold his anything!

"Save your acting skill for the theater Sensei!"

Kuon put his index finger up with his free hand and opened his mouth to counter her but she did not let him.

"Don't say a word! I can't have you distracting me with your wily ways" Kuon frowned at her choice of words, as she continued on. "Do you realize what you did this afternoon? I mean how much of an idiot can you be?! Do you know how many teachers there were in that conference room today? Hmm?"

Well Kuon was confused as heck. What was she talking about? And why was the word idiot becoming synonymous with his name?

His expression must have showed his confusion because before he could ask her what she was talking about she gave him his answer.

"In the conference room today, with that whole Mimori thing."

"Ah"

"Ah?" She glared at him and let go of his t-shirt and wrist, taking a step back.

"That's all you can say" as she poked him angrily.

"For such a smart man you sure can be dumb."

Poke.

"Do you have an idea as to what you put yourself in!?"

Poke.

"I'm sure by now, that silly Mimori has told half the school about what happened!"

Poke.

"And let's not forget Aki-san shall we? For where would we be without the icing on the firkin cake?!"

She went in for another poke but Kuon grabbed her small wrist.

He looked into those eyes and the glaring decreased as his stare got stronger and stronger.

"Are you worried about me Kyoko-san?" he asked softly, feeling a strange sort of happiness that he cared not to analyze at the moment.

She sputtered, took another step back, and glanced away only to look back.

"Of course I'm worried! Who wouldn't be? It'll be my fault if the whole school finds out about this…though I'm sure half of them already know by now."

Even though he knew why she was worried he wanted to hear it from her mouth.

Using the wrist in his fingers he pulled her closer as he asked "Why? What happens if the school find out?"

Her mouth hung open at his stupid question.

"Geez I don't know Sensei. I'm sure nothing will happen when the school is filled with horrible gossip about you and I'm pretty sure you won't be fired or anything because I'm just a paranoid freak like that!" she exclaimed, oozing with sarcasm.

Kuon looked at her and she scowled back.

And to her utter annoyance he threw his head back and laughed. A bit too charmingly for her tastes.

Ripping her wrist out of his hand she watched him laugh for a moment more before throwing her hands in the air, frustrated.

"Fine! Be like that! See if I care when they fire you or whatever!"

She frowned at him and turned around to walk away but Kuon grabbed her, trying to stifle his mirth.

She didn't turn to face him but she did stop.

When he was once again in control of his breath Kuon apologized, wishing her lovely eyes would grace him with their presence.

"I'm sorry Kyoko-san, I'm not laughing at you, or your worry, but you really don't need to worry about me. If anything you should be worrying about yourself."

"Why?" came the small answer.

Why she asks, when the possibility of anything distressing happening would affect her far more than it could affect him.

"Because Kyoko-san, I can take care of myself."

Turn she did, with that anger back in place.

"And I can't take care of myself?!"

He did not know why this defensive side of her was bursting out but inner Kuon teased.

"Well that appears to be the case"

"Excuse me?"

"Well I wasn't the one being accused of threatening my classmate with a pair of scissors and border lining on expulsion."

Eyes narrowed and she bit out "I can take care of myself, there was no need for you get involved in that."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes" she nodded her head enthusiastically, still miffed at him.

Kuon raised an eyebrow "Yeah? What exactly were you planning on doing Kyoko-san?"

"Telling the truth"

"Yes, because that worked out so well for you."

"It would have!"

Eyebrow still raised Kuon did not reply.

"Ugghh! Stop it!"

"Stop what?" he asked seemingly innocently enough, but he knew that she knew just what he was playing at.

"This whole thing!" she moved her hands between them both, her eyes changing from annoyance to distress, and continued "This thing where you always turn the tables on me, like I'm out to get you or something!"

Silence distributed throughout the alley shatteringly.

Well, this certainly was a turn of events.

"Sorry" he muttered, seeing the hurt in her eyes.

She looked down and shook her head slowly.

"I didn't mea-"

"I'm sor-"

They both stopped and stared at each other.

Kuon sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling like crap for some strange reason.

"I didn't mean come off like that. I don't think you are out to get me" at least not intentionally nor with any intent of harm he thought.

She tinkered with her fingers and with her gaze held downward.

"Sorry" he repeated, not really knowing why he was saying it again. He had hurt her and he wanted to apologize but he did not know how he hurt her. He could not explain it to her much less to himself.

She shook her head again and choked out "No I'm-"

"No, don't" he interrupted her, holding up his hand "Don't apologize. Whatever you do, please don't apologize you didn't do anything wrong."

She finally peeked up at him and he felt much better, oh so much better that he felt completely floored by those shy eyes peeking at him.

Clearing his throat Kuon felt shockingly awkward, standing here while she looked at him shyly. He did not know what to do with his body, did not know what to do with himself…period.

Realizing that she was staring at him, Kyoko quickly looked away and Kuon could breathe a bit easier.

"Soooo? Shall we get out of this alley?" he inquired looking around his surroundings, trying to get away from the awkwardness that encompassed them.

"Hmm? Oh! Yes, lets" she answered a bit too eagerly.

Grabbing Martha, who was leaning on the other side of the alley Kuon walked out first.

They walked in peace, side by side, until Kuon spotted Fuwa sitting in a car across the street. Damn.

He stole a glance at the girl next to him and hoped that she had not seen the teenage boy.

When he realized that she had not, he peeked back to see Aki walk out of a boutique with a couple of bags in her hand.

He felt rather than saw Kyoko stiffen beside him and spontaneously he put his hand over her eyes as Aki, unaware of the pair on the other side of the street, walked towards Fuwa's car.

His eyes were instantly covered too, by small nimble fingers.

Kuon blinked against the pleasant fingers and removed his hand from Kyoko's eyes.

He moved her fingers with his hand, and held on to them a bit longer than necessary.

He turned, facing her side, to hide her from the passing road.

She looked up at him, and he looked down.

"So you knew" he stated.

"You did too" she pointed out.

They both nodded their head at the same time as a car passed by behind Kuon.

Kuon smiled and she tried to hide hers.

Peals of laughter broke out at the absurdness of the occurrence.

When they calmed down they resumed their walk, stealing glances at each other.

"How did you find out?" Kuon asked, not bothering to elaborate.

She sighed and Kuon wondered if the wound was still too fresh.

"I saw them kissing" she answered taking his approach of not going into details.

"Hmm"

"How about you?"

"Oh Aki told me" he said casually.

Eyes popped out "She told you?!"

Kuon shrugged lightly "Well not in so many words, but I took a gamble and turned out I was right."

She looked at him shrewdly and took a step back, away from him.

"And what is that suppose to mean?" he asked, raising his brow at her move.

"Sensei, you're a dangerous man you know that?"

Kuon was surprised, but not enough to retort back "Says the girl who manhandled me in a dark alley."

He sighed and looked dejectedly away, as Kyoko gaped at him.

"I did not…you…that's…not..you!" she stammered as he walked on, leaving her standing.

Kuon glanced over his shoulder and threw her a rakish wink.

She abruptly closed her mouth, blushed and narrowed her eyes at him as he continued moving, still looking back at her.

She pointed at him and exclaimed "Hey where do you think you're going? This conversation is not over!"

"Home" he said teasingly.

She ran after him, only to have him nimbly climb his bike and pedal slowly away.

When she did catch up with him, her frown had intensified and Kuon stopped the bike.

"Hai?"

"Don't you dare 'hai' me!"

"Yes ma'am" he looked as solemn as ever.

"And I did NOT manhandle you!"

"Of course" he said, lips twitching.

"I didn't!" she said blushing full force and shaking her hands.

"No…you didn't, you just accosted me, rather physically."

She pouted and Kuon stopped breathing, gripping the handles of his bike as firmer.

"Sensei you jerk."

Kuon smiled and reached out to pat her head, "Hai Hai, Sensei is a meanie"

"Don't treat me like a child!" She swatted his hand away, and huffed away.

"Do you want a ride?" he asked her jokingly.

She stiffened as if remembering something and Kuon watched her glance down at her watch slowly.

A screech tore through her throat and before he knew it she was running away, clearly late for her job.

Kuon shook his head in amusement and got back on his bike.

He caught with her fairly quickly and halted in front of her.

She screeched to a stop, losing her footing in the process.

Kuon caught her easily and as her mouth opened to scold him he moved his hands down to her waist and picked her up, effectively silencing her.

He put her on the back of his bike and got on, ignoring the heat pulsing on his skin where her fingers had splayed over his chest when she had lost balance.

"Hold on" he said hoarsely, trying to wet his dry mouth.

She did not reply as Kuon pedaled on.

When he made a turn she timidly grabbed the back of his shirt, making sure to touch his shirt and nothing else. Still, he felt the tempting graze of her skin through his shirt every now and then.

While he concentrated on moving his feet properly she slowly whispered that he should drop her off a block before the back entrance of the ryokan.

Kuon stopped, just as she had told him and got off his bike. Kyoko did not look at him as she jumped off and he shoved his hands in his pockets, as they stood trying to avoid each other's gaze. Kuon stared at her black shoes and willed himself not to move his eyes up those long legs of hers.

She looked at him blushing and bowed quickly, thanking him and she ran towards the ryokan's back door without waiting for a reply from him.

Kuon watched the door close behind her and he stood there watching the door for a few more minutes.

"What the hell are you doing Kuon?" he muttered as he leaned back on the wall behind him as he slumped down.

He hid his head in his crossed arms and muttered away, clearly infatuated with a certain girl he had no business being attracted to.

* * *

Like Kyoko manhandling Kuon? Hehehe I personally loved it! HAHA so much fun to write!

Ok i don't usually do this, but you guys can ignore this little part if ur not interested but i'm tooo curious to pass it.

**Elsie**, if you're reading this, I was, still am confuzzled by ur review. Which confrontation are you taking about? And also since this story is non-canon Sho has not stalked/slapped/or verbally abused Kyoko, so that confused me even more. Sorry I tried to understand what you wrote but I failed.

**_Merci_**** beaucoup for reading/reviewing/favoriting/and following! ^_^ **


	8. Chapter: Intermission

**NOT A REAL CHAPTER...MORE LIKE A SIDE STORY! **(you have been warned)

You know what sucks guys? Writers block. Although it's not that bad, sad to say I'm still working on the next chapter :(

So I thought why not put this little snippet out while you all wait so patiently? In the mean time I shall try finishing the next chapter in a couple of days. Sorry for the long wait.

Mistakes are playing hide and seek, and guess who's looking ;)

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Vuiguru Reino was confused, or it would be better to say that he was curious. It had been pestering him for a while now, a simple statement that was slowly taking over his mind.

First he asked Miroku who only gave him a knowing smile and said it would be better if he did not know but that did not satisfy Reino at all. He wanted to know. He had to know! It was pure torture not knowing!

So he asked Dasuku who shrugged and said he had no interest in such things as he begged Reino to read him…again, for like the third time in the day. Reino ignored his request and made a mental note to ask someone more interested in the school.

The other boys in his class were too scared of him to truly give him an answer. They were too busy pleading with him not to curse them. Just for that Reino muttered some Shinto prayers and sniggered away as his classmates freaked out trying to undo his "curse". Bakas.

When he went up to a group of girls he could tolerate, they giggled and twirled their hair too much for his patience to actually get a straight answer out of them. Their increase in giggles at his question was even more vexing. Making his escape Reino wondered who he should go to next. Perhaps he should pay a visit to akazukin-chan, she might tell him and if he were lucky maybe he could piss her off enough to see her demons. What fun!

Not looking where he was going he bumped into someone.

Small flashes ran through his head as he looked up at the man in front of him.

"Sorry I didn't mean to bump into you like that" the foreigner apologized sincerely as he took a step back.

Reino shook his head and wondered at what he just saw right now. The bloody face in his visions sent a shiver down his body.

"Are you okay?" asked the blonde man worriedly, although the bump was not too hard the boy in front of him seemed like he was about to faint or something.

"I'm fine" replied Reino hoarsely, looking for a quick escape. Sometime his powers were too damn annoying. And what was up this teacher and his obviously violent past? Geez did they hire anybody now a days to teach? Not that it was his problem as long as the teacher stayed away from him, he was not a big fan of violent people.

"Well then if you're fine I'll be on my way."

Reino nodded and moved out of the way so he would not accidently touch the man again. He watched the man walk away, wondering what subject he taught because this was the first time Reino had seen him. Probably English thought Reino, as he walked back to class as the bell rang.

That night while he watched a scary movie that reminded of him of his akazukin-chan Reino once again was brought back to his problem. He barely got any sleep as his vague dreams involved the darn problem.

"You look like hell" Miroku commented as Reino entered the school.

"I think he looks cool, like a vampire or something" added Kiyora

Reino shot Miroku a glare "It's your entire fault!"

Miroku smirked knowing well what was going on with his cousin, but he wanted his bit of fun before he helped Reino along.

"It is?" replied Miroku as innocently as possible.

"Yeah!"

"Were you dreaming about Miroku? It that why you couldn't sleep?" Chuckled Kiyora a teasing gleam in his eyes.

Reino narrowed his eyes at him but did not reply as his heart sped up. That could only mean one thing.

"Move beagle, you're blocking the way."

Reino whipped around with a smile on his face.

"Akazukin-chan! You're looking as terrifyingly beautiful as ever I see."

Kyoko glared at him and his smile increased to her displeasure. Ah his energy was restored! Who cared if he only got three hours of sleep, his dark hime-sama was glaring at him. Could the day get any better?

"You should go around like that more often akazukin-chan, it makes the whole world so much better."

He reached out for her and Kyoko slapped his hand away furiously. She was never in the mood for his dumb jokes and today was no different.

"You seriously need help beagle! Didn't I tell you to go see Hizuri-sensei?" She looked accusingly at him, as if this Hizuri-sensei could solve whatever problem that she thought Reino had. Clicking her tongue at him she moved past him.

"Eh! But akazukin-chan who is Hizuri-sensei?" he exclaimed with his out stretched hand, as she walked away.

Kyoko never gave him an answer and Reino looked over to his friends.

"Who is Hizuri-sensei?" he whined with puppy eyes, befitting his nickname.

Kiyora shrugged and shook his head.

Miroku on the other hand patted Reino's back and told him that they had best get to class or else they would be late.

"But I wanna know who Hizuri-sensei is" whispered Reino dejectedly as they walked to class.

It would seem that Vuiguru Reino was stuck with his problem for now, seeing as how nobody was willing to tell him who this elusive Hizuri-sensei was.

* * *

Man i love this kid..dude lol seriously Reino has to be one of my fav side characters, like if there was no Ren in the story I would totally root for Reino and Kyoko any time of the day! He's just too much of an interesting character to be put on the shelf to collect dust.

Again sorry if you guy were disappointed that this isn't a real chapter...

**Thanks for: Reading/Reviewing/Favoriting/Following!  
**


	9. Chapter 9

Here it be...took me forever the darn thing..still I hope you guys like it and tell me if it flows, cuz I'm not 110% happy with it, but it had to be written.

Sadly there is no Kuon in this :( but Kyoko will make up for that hopefully?

Mistakes: those sneaky little things that take multiple tires to catch, like the goldfish game in Japanese festivals ;)

**ENJOY!**

* * *

She took a few deep breaths and walked down the garden path towards the ryokan door. Kyoko never knew that a simple bicycle ride could make her so nervous.

Her heart still raced at the thought of being held like that by someone. She should have stopped him when he put her on the bike. Another blush coated her face; Sensei was far too forward for her sometimes.

She stopped in her tracks and wondered why she let him pick her up, but would that have been rude?

After all he was just doing her a favor, and if she repaid him by being rude than that would be worse.

She cocked her head, looking at the ground; did he have to pick her up? Could he not have asked her to get on his bike? Then she would have thanked him for the offer but she would not have listened to him. Maybe he knew that she would not accept his offer so he had gone to such lengths as picking her up.

Still…still…

"Kyoko-chan?"

Kyoko looked up to see one of the nakai peeking out from the workers entrance.

She shook her head and decided to put all thoughts of Sensei out of her mind. She had work to do.

She walked to her room and quickly changed with minutes left before her shift.

Sadly depending on whose point of view, Kyoko did not think more on the bicycle incident during the rest of the day, nor did she think about it the next day.

Perhaps it was the absence of Sensei in her routine at school the next day or perhaps it was denial, none the less Kyoko did not think about it. She had better things to do.

The week finished without much trouble, or so she thought as she lounged around in her room on Sunday evening. Although she would not mind working all weekend long Okami-san would not relent and always had her take at least one day off in the week.

Still Kyoko could not complain too much, Sundays gave her time to finish her homework and anything else that she missed doing during the week.

The shoji opened with a slam and Kyoko gripped her pencil harder, seeing how there was only one person who would come into her room with such a bang and without any prior warning.

Sho scowled down at her but she took no notice, continuing with her homework.

"Let's go" he ordered.

Kyoko ignored him and scribbled away in concentration.

Sho walked over to her and crouched down.

"What? Did you become deaf?"

Kyoko wondered if her answer was too long.

"Hey!"

Sho watched as she read the next question in the workbook.

Rolling his eyes Sho yanked the book out from under her pencil when she stopped writing.

"Hey!" Kyoko exclaimed finally looking at him.

"Oh, she speaks" Sho bit out sarcastically.

Kyoko gripped the pencil tighter as she said evenly "Give it back."

Flinging the workbook to the other side of the room Sho grabbed her arm and pulled her up with him.

"What the hell are you doing? Let go you baka!"

She yanked but he did not let go. Even when she dug her heels into the tatami and refused to move he did not let go.

He glanced back at her and said "Okaa-san wants us to go out."

Kyoko rolled her eyes and did not move.

"So?"

"So we need to go out" said Sho exasperatedly.

"I'm not going out anywhere with the likes of you."

Her statement was received with a glare and Kyoko was seconds away from unleashing her demons on him. Luckily for Sho, Okami-san entered the room at that precise moment.

Sho quickly dropped her arm and faced his smiling mother.

"Kyoko-chan I brought a pair of sandals for you to wear tonight."

She sat down gracefully near Kyoko's low table and automatically Kyoko followed her.

Kyoko looked down at the box that was presented to her.

"Open it" prodded Okami-san gently.

Kyoko looked up at her and glanced down in guilt. She did not deserve this but at the same time she knew she could not refuse such a gift.

With nervous fingers Kyoko pried open the box and stared down at the pretty pair of sandals.

She had never owned anything quite like them before and a smile graced her mouth. Knowing that Kyoko was pleased Okami-san got up and told them not to be home too late.

"Why don't you wear the blue dress that you have and show us how the sandals look?"

Kyoko jerked up at the sentence and saw Sho smirking from behind his mother. Oh what she wouldn't give to wipe that bratty little smirk from his face.

Reluctantly Kyoko gave Okami-san a small nod and was soon left alone to change for her "date".

Kyoko sighed and fingered the silver floral pattern on the sandals slowly. Why could they not just leave her alone? Although Sho still pissed her off something about those feelings were mellowing out. She did not know if this was a good thing or not but if he kept interfering in her life in such a manner she worried that she would be back at square one.

Hating someone was easier done when you did not have to be reminded everyday of reasons why one fell for him in the first place. Sho was an ass through and through but if he wanted to play his cause he could turn into a decent human being, conniving his way into her heart. He had not bugged her for the past few days but that had been the calm before the storm, Kyoko was sure. He still wanted to know what was going on with her, and why she was behaving so strangely towards him. And now with this "date" he would try to weasel something out of her, Kyoko just knew it.

With a final brush to her hair Kyoko stood up ten minutes later. She looked wistfully into the mirror remember another time, another world, and what felt like, eons ago.

A time when she would have dressed happily, brushed her hair humming and the smile on her face would have never left. The first time Sho had asked her "out" she could barely breathe from the excitement. What she never noticed was the "there are you happy now" look he had given his mother in passing. She had been so nervous that night; taking extra care with everything she did.

They had gone to the neighborhood temple because it was New Year's, but nothing could have deterred Kyoko's delight that night. It had been so long since they had gone to the temple together and Sho had asked her, her of all the people to come with him!

Once they had entered middle school, their friendship had deteriorated; Sho had other friends, though she was always the closest female friend he had. A rare change occurred again once they entered their last year of middle school. Sho started asking her to go places with him, places she would only have dreamed of going with him. She could never tell herself that they were going out, because that was beyond her thoughts, that a boy like Sho would go out with her.

She did know that they had something special and when she shared her first kiss with him in ninth grade she was delirious with happiness. She was so delirious that she barely noticed their relationship breaking down again in high school. Sho went out with other girls and Kyoko told herself that they were still special because at the end of the day she knew him best and he knew her best. She thought she had been right when at the end of last year Sho repeated his attentions and once again she felt like it was only her and Sho in the world, until she saw him, a few weeks ago, kissing Aki Shoko, the Japanese language sensei. The kiss she could have dealt with in time, but it was Sho's words that pricked and prodded until she felt the shattering.

Then she really broke. Broke to the point that she had no clue what she was doing.

All she could do to hold on was to be angry, angry at Sho, angry at the people around her, angry at herself for believing in something in that was never there. She held on to that anger, tightly wrapping it around all her broken walls so no one could get in, and so she could keep breathing without pain, but that one session with Hizuri-sensei had lifted that anger enough for her to feel again. Still it had not been enough.

Sho had broken her to the point that she wrapped that anger all around once again. She was never letting anyone in ever again, or so she thought. Even if the hatred she had for Sho decreased her anger she was never letting go.

With a decided care she put on the sandals, took a deep breath before going out of her room and into the sitting room where Okami-san and Sho were sure to be waiting for her.

Okami-san nodded approvingly and out of habit Kyoko looked over to the bored looking Sho. A tint of disappointment at his reaction ran through Kyoko's body until she pushed it aside and stomped on it until nothing but dust was left.

"Let's go" ordered Sho as he got up and walked to her.

"Have fun" smiled Okami-san warmly.

"Ittekimasu" said Kyoko as she bowed and followed after Sho.

They reached the car and before Kyoko could think about it Sho was revving out the parking lot and into the street.

Music blared as Kyoko looked out the window not paying attention to her surroundings, missing the stolen glances Sho was giving her.

When the car stopped Kyoko looked out the window to see that they had stopped at the local movie theater, the same theater that was frequented by her classmates. Kyoko whipped around to look at Sho.

He was determinedly ignoring her as he shut the car off.

Kyoko wondered what he was up too. In the past when he was "forced" to take her out he never picked a place so close to town, where their classmates might see them. She never took notice then but now she knew better, which left her confused as to why he was taking her to see a movie at the most popular theater in town.

Instantly she was on guard as she slowly climbed out the car, hoping that they would not meet anyone they knew.

Coming around to her Sho grabbed her hand and Kyoko froze. Sho never held her hand. Ever.

He gave a little tug and Kyoko felt a frightening chill run down her spine.

Sure enough her instincts were right as a screeching voice caused Sho to stop.

"Shooooooo-chhhaaaaannn what are you doing?!"

Sho cocked his head to look over at the big group surrounding Mimori.

Kyoko jerked her hand out of Sho's fingers and wished she could just be swallowed by the earth.

To her utter surprise Sho grabbed her hand again and answered Mimori.

"Watching a movie Pocchiri, what else would I be doing at a movie theater?"

Kyoko struggled to get out his grip but he would not let go.

Mimori pointed at Kyoko and yelled "WITH HER!"

Sho shrugged "Yeah so? I don't see how that's a problem."

Kyoko's eye twitched at his response. Was he firkin kidding?

The group on the other hand started a furious whisper at Sho's reply. The girls glared at Kyoko with ease and the boys looked strangely at Sho.

Mimori sputtered and stomped "But that's….that's like a date!"

"Yeah so?"

This increased the hostile whispers in the group. Kyoko knew she would have to pay for this later, like always.

Without waiting for a reply Sho yanked Kyoko towards the entrance but he didn't count on her finally freeing her hand from his grip.

Turning to face her he raised an eyebrow in question.

Old Kyoko might have skipped into that damn theater feeling elated at Sho's replies but there was no way in hell she was going to be led astray like that again.

"I'm going home," she told him.

"But you've wanted to see this movie forever!"

Kyoko froze in her tracks. A demon slid out, with a feral grin on her face.

"Excuse me?" she asked chillingly.

"You were bugging me to watch the movie and I finally get a chance to take you and you are acting like a brat."

It never ceased to amaze her how easily he could push her buttons like that, like it was her fault completely that she behaving in such a bratty way!

Walking up to him Kyoko grabbed his collar and brought him down to her eye level.

"Hey!" screamed Mimori but Kyoko paid no mind.

"If you think for one second that I'm going to be some sort of screen for you and Aki-san than you are sorely mistaken you asshole" she whispered deathly, not knowing where the idea had even come from but one look at Sho's widened eyes she knew her conscience had been right. Like a fool she had almost fallen for his selfish trick. Almost.

At least she was learning.

She shoved him back, making him stagger and send him such a chilling glare that it took him far too long to gain control of his nerves.

"Wait!" Sho yelled as he grabbed hold of her shoulder as she walked away.

She stopped, looking down at the fingers at her shoulder, but Sho never saw the daggers she was shooting his fingers.

"Look" he pleadingly whispered "It's not like that at all, Sho…Aki is just in a bit of trouble and well I needed you're help. Come on, don't act like some stupid jealous girl, there's nothing going on between Aki and me. If there was, would I bring you out with me tonight like this? On a date?"

When she turned to face him Sho looked relieved and a small smile was growing on his face that is until he saw Kyoko's blazing eyes.

"Get your hand off me" she snarled and Sho automatically took it off.

Kyoko took a step back and before she could reply Sho reached for her again.

This time Kyoko did not bother rearing in her demons, it seemed that Sho never could learn the easy way.

While he screamed as something dark and heavy attacked him from all sides, most of his classmates came running, with Mimori in the lead.

"Shooo-chhaaann!"

There were a few people who took one glance at the darkened aura around Kyoko and did not move an inch further.

Leaving behind a slumped and abused Sho, Kyoko walked away ignoring the cries of her female classmates.

Although beating him up like that had lessened her anger at the moment it was not helping her now. She fisted her hands at the audacity of Sho. Who did he think he was? The king of the world? What gave him the right to think he could use her like this?

Okay fine he did not know that she had known about him and Aki, but still that did not give him the right to treat her like some damn pawn to be used as a shield. He was using her like he had used his toys when he was younger. The same toys that were thrown out carelessly when he had gotten bored of them. Well Mogami Kyoko refused to be thrown away like some petty toy!

She paused in the middle of the street to get her anger in control. Frustrated beyond belief Kyoko tried to contain the rush of energy pulsing through her body. Every centimeter of her skin was burning with hot fury.

She almost turned around to give Sho another piece of her mind, or her demons for that matter, anything to help with her tumbled emotional state.

When she gained some control she headed to the bus stop.

As she sneaked into the ryokan Kyoko hoped that Okami-san would not see her.

She really was not in the mood to answer questions, or make up excuses for Sho. Since luck was not on her side on this evening Okami-san did see her, and sure enough the first thing out her mouth was why Kyoko was home so early, having just left half an hour ago.

Tired of lying Kyoko blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

"We argued and I came home."

Realizing what she had said Kyoko looked down in shame immediately.

"He did something stupid didn't he?" asked Okami-san sighing.

Kyoko jerked her head up and looked up at Okami-san.

"Eh?"

Shaking her head Okami-san said "Well since you seem alright why don't you go rest."

"Hai" said Kyoko softly as Okami-san walked away to her duties, leaving behind a baffled Kyoko.

Not waiting around for Okami-san to change her mind or something Kyoko practically ran to her room and shut the door behind her.

Slipping out of her clothes and into something more comfortable Kyoko got back to her homework, only to have problems concentrating.

Frustration overtook her again and she all but slammed her books shut. Knowing that she would not get any work done now, Kyoko laid down her futon and tried to sleep.

She woke up more miserable than when she went to sleep and using her homework as an excuse she managed to get to school earlier than usual avoiding Sho in the process.

Instead of going to class Kyoko finished the rest of her homework in the courtyard.

When she did arrive in class her desk was nowhere to be seen and the giggles from the girls in the class told her that it had begun.

She managed to find her desk on the other side of the hallway and was late for class.

"You're late Mogami" noted Aki-san darkly.

"I lost my desk" muttered Kyoko as she placed her desk back in place.

Laughter erupted in the classroom and Aki-san looked even more displeased.

"Make sure it does not happen again, and write a reflection letter and bring it to me by lunch."

"Hai" said Kyoko as she slumped in her chair ignoring the haughty looks from her female classmates.

She also felt another gaze on her but choose to ignore it. When the ten minutes break between classes occurred Kyoko was on her guard but nothing happened. She knew better though, it would only mean something worse later on.

When Mimori had followed Sho out the room Kyoko surmised that she might have finally gotten a break but she was wrong. Sure enough when she was scribbling her reflection letter at the start of lunch water came pouring down on her desk.

"Whoop, how clumsy of me" Kagurazaka Yoshiko, a Mimori stooge said.

Kyoko looked up to see her smiling rather viciously. Looking back down at her thoroughly wet paper Kyoko sighed.

"Do you seriously have nothing better to do than play as Mimori's lackey?" whispered Kyoko.

"Ha?" Kagurazaka leaned down "Did you say something you slut?"

"I said you should watch that dirty mouth of yours" said Kyoko louder.

Slamming her hands on Kyoko's desk Kagurazaka fumed.

"Say that one more time you skank and I'll shut that mouth in ways you never thought possible!" she barked.

She had never stood up to these annoying girls but Kyoko was not going to let things slide anymore, if she got pushed she would push back twice as hard.

Gathering her stuff Kyoko pointed a look at Kagurazaka and stated sharply "I dare you to try."

Walking out the room Kyoko wondered where she could go without being disturbed.

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Hehehe all of you who reviewed the previous "chapter" signed in...hehehe that makes me sooo happy cuz i gots to thank you!

**Terima Kasih for Favoriting, Following, Reviewing, and Reading!** (Indonesian, which has the same letters as english, my friend tells me and I'm like NOH WAYS! Learn something new everyday :D)


	10. Chapter 10

Where have i been you ask? SAVING THE WORLD THAT'S WHERE!...which roughly translated into "sooo i was procrastinating and when i finally decided to write real life decided to throw some things my way...and i gots an internship...soo yeah..." my bads :( Apologizes all around *throws em like flowers at a wedding*

OMO omo omo! 92 frikin reviews! thats like eight more and i hit the hundred mark baby! whoot whoot! You guys are my beasties now! :D

Btw sorry if Sho is ooc, he's like the snobby actor that refuses to act and i can't even fire him the punk.

Mistakes are proudly owned by moi.

**ENJOY! **Hope this chappy surprises you.

* * *

Kyoko looked from one glaring girl to the other. Seven girls, all ranging from different grades and different classes and Kyoko was stuck in the middle. Well not so much the middle as cornered in the side of the building. Could they not be a bit more creative? Why was it always the same out of a manga scene; corner the girl in a secluded spot on campus and harass the heck out of her?

Kyoko waited for them to start and she was not disappointed when Kagurazaka banged her hand near Kyoko's head on the wall. Ohh scary!

"Who the hell do you think you are? First you chase after Sho-chan and now you're playing around with him AND Hizuri-sensei? Going on a date with Sho-chan? Who do you think you're deluding? Ha! Then what about Hizuri-sensei?"

Kyoko stared at the girl who would not let her answer any of the questions she was sprouting; did Kagurazaka enjoy having conversations with herself? If so, then what was the point of calling Kyoko out like this?

"Hey are you listening to me you whore?"

Grabbing a fist of Kyoko's hair for emphasis Kagurazaka glared at Kyoko.

The girls around smirked or threw the stink eye at the uncaring Kyoko.

"Is this why you called me out?" asked Kyoko.

"Hmph, what else do you think we would call you out for?" replied Kagurazaka, giving a yank on the hair "Did you think we called you out to have a tea party or something?"

Kyoko raised her eyebrow and grabbed the wrist of the hand that was harshly pulling on her hair.

"Let go."

"And if I don't?" Kagurazaka sneered.

Kyoko did not answer but continued increasing the pressure on the wrist she was holding.

Kagurazaka tried to hold on but eventually pain was too much for her. She gasped in pain as she tore her hand out of Kyoko's grip.

The girls made their move when they heard Kagurazaka's gasp.

Kyoko was forcefully pushed into the hard ground and before she could do anything four pair of hands grabbed her from different positions holding her down. Between the blood oozing out of her knee and the pain in both her palms Kyoko struggled to get out of their grip. Her throbbing thigh was doing no better either.

"I think you need to cool down Mogami-san" said one of the girls, smiling sardonically.

She poured a bottle sticky juice down on the struggling Kyoko with great pleasure. The other girls giggled in glee.

"You know what I think she needs girls?" said the dramatic Kagurazaka.

The girls all looked at her expectantly, and with a long pause Kagurazaka slowly said, all the while taking a razor out of her skirt pocket "Something to show her where she truly belongs. Perhaps that garbage container over there might bring her back down to earth and a permanent mark on her face will make her remember that she does not belong in society."

Just as the girl who had poured the juice was about to walk to the garbage can a lazy voice floated down to them.

"Tsk tsk seven against one, don't you think that's taking it a bit far?"

Shock filled the girls faces at being caught.

The girls looked up to see lanky Vuiguru Reino from class 3-E, practically half hanging out the window above them.

"I know that you girls like to do stupid stuff but cheating is taking it a bit far don't you think?"

"I don't think you have any right to speak Vuiguru! You are the last person who should be lecturing anyone on being honest" shouted Kagurazaka defensibly; glad it was not a teacher.

Reino smirked and put his chin comfortably on the window sill.

"You are right there but even an immoral person like me thinks that this picture is a bit unfair."

"That's cuz you like this stupid tramp" squeaked out a freshman as she nudged Kyoko roughly.

Reino laughed and when he abruptly stopped the freshman shivered as he glared down at her.

"I think you're ten years too early to be talking to me like that Yuki-chan" said Reino frostily.

Makihara Yuki shivered and loosened her grip in fear, wondering how he knew her name. It was not like she was popular enough for a senior to know her name. Though she knew all there was to know about the curse giver.

"Either way it's none of your business Vuiguru" pointed out Kagurazaka.

Reino tilted his head and nodded "Hmm you might be right there Yoshiko, it certainly is none of my business whether you guys get in trouble or not"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Reino shrugged "Oh nothing much…just that in about five minutes a group of teachers will walk by this window after returning from lunch and it would be interesting to see what happens ne?"

Kagurazaka did not reply, wondering if Vuiguru was tricking her or not. The bastard could never be trusted properly; still she did not want to get in trouble for the slut behind her.

"Oh do continue with your activities" advised Reino and added breezily "By the way do you guys know who the mysterious Hizuri-sensei is? The staff room is too dangerous for me to enter and find out, so I was wondering if you guys could tell me."

"Haa? Stop playing around you baka!"

Reino ignored her answer as he turned around and yelled cheerfully "Konbanwa Takenori-sensei!"

The girls on the ground froze and one nod from Kagurazaka had them running off in different directions.

Kyoko pulled herself up in a sitting position and examined her bleeding knee. It was not that bad but it would need to be disinfected and bandaged. Shit.

While she examined the rest of her body to make sure she was not seriously hurt Reino jumped from the first floor window above.

"Well that was fun wasn't it?"

Kyoko ignored him and seeing how nothing was sprained or broken she carefully stood up, hissing in pain.

"Daijoubu?"

"En"

Kyoko walked away and Reino followed behind her.

"We should probably go to the nurse to bandage the wound"

"It's fine" muttered Kyoko, trying to walk straight while stopping her body from shivering in anger.

Reino grabbed her arm to help her along but she pulled her arm out of his fingers.

"I'm fine" she said and walked back into the school.

"Oi!"

She's always walking away from me thought Reino as he watched her go.

Kyoko walked into a bathroom and wiped herself clean and stopped the bleeding as best as she could; she would go the nurse later. They were going to have a test in history today and she would not miss it or be late.

Avoiding as many people as she could she went back to class just as the bell rang.

Looking through her desk to take out some paper her hand was pricked with something sharp. Sure enough when she took the hand out a small red drop was forming on her skin. It would seem that the cornering during lunch was just the beginning, though Kyoko expected as much.

Sighing with frustration Kyoko quickly took out some band aids from her bag and put a couple on her hands and the rest on her knees.

The rest of the day went about in the same manner, with Kyoko trying rather hard to keep her emotions in check while the girls bullied her on.

When the last bell rang Kyoko stayed in her seat watching the people around her rush to get out of the stifling school.

Mimori and her lackeys watched and loudly whispered that they would wait for her outside if she was going to be such a coward.

"Annoying girls" muttered Kyoko later as she moved aside the glass bottle to reveal the disinfectant.

The nurse was not in and so much the better it was for her.

Some of her wounds had dried but others could not be properly stopped with just the small bandages she had on her.

Looking in another cabinet for some gauze and some cotton swabs Kyoko missed the entrance of the other person.

"Why are you so clumsy?" asked Sho as Kyoko whipped around to face him.

"Huh?"

"I said why are so clumsy?" repeated Sho pointing to the band aids on her knees and hands.

Kyoko blinked at him and her eye twitched once she understood what he said.

Glancing down she snorted.

"You're kidding me right?" she looked up at him.

"What?" asked a confused Sho.

"You are shitting with me right now aren't you?" said Kyoko enunciating every word as carefully as possible.

When no answer was forthcoming she took a deep breath as the anger that was kept at bay during her classes was seeping out of her carefully calculated control.

"Why are you getting annoyed at me for? It's not my fault you're so clumsy."

"Get the hell out" whispered Kyoko not looking at him any longer.

"Why?"

"Get the hell out Sho before I beat the crap out of you" snapped Kyoko, not in the mood for his stupidity.

"Oh yeah?" snickered Sho "I'd like to see you try and like I said before why are you getting mad at me? It's not like I hurt you"

"No you didn't but you're damn pseudo girlfriend played a hand in it"

"What? Pocchiri did?"

Kyoko did not answer letting him figure it out.

"Why the heck are you fighting with her to begin with? Just ignore Pocchiri, or she gets too annoying" he advised, obviously not figuring anything out.

Kyoko stared at him, wondering for the first time in her life if some screws were loose in his brain. Could anyone truly be this oblivious to their surroundings? Was he really so selfish that he could not see anything beside himself?

"You're a real baka aren't you? Do you even know why she's fighting with me? Hmm?"

Sho stared at her as if she was speaking another language.

Kyoko sighed and shook her head "Look, leave me alone okay, I don't have time to deal with you right now."

She did not want to tell him what was happening because she knew he would try to stop it, not because of her but because their friendship meant something to him, however little that something was she could not tell.

Kyoko sat down on one of the chairs and carefully opened the bottle in her hands.

"Here let me" said Sho as he crouched in front of her and held his hand out for the bottle.

Getting caught up in the moment Kyoko extended her hand to give him the bottle until her demons retaliated.

Seeing her pause Sho tilted his head in confusion.

"You okay? Does it hurt that bad?" he asked concerned.

Kyoko sighed and stiffly replied "Leave"

"Huh?"

"I said leave Shotaro!"

He could not understand where this anger was coming from and why it was being directed at him.

Kyoko stood and Sho followed about to grab her but she shoved his hand away with a crack.

"What the hell!" he exclaimed.

"Don't you dare touch me!"

Sho laughed deliriously "Are **you** shitting with me right now? You're not high are you? Seriously what the hell is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" What's wrong with ME?"

She whipped around to face him and he froze at the spheres of malice embedded in her face.

"Whose fault do you think it is that Mimori is bothering me you prick? Whose firkin fault do you think it is? Do you even have a brain you moron? Actually don't bother answering that, because you don't! I'll help you figure out this simple problem okay? Let's seeeee Shotaro, who does Mimori like best? Hmm?"

Sho blinked and nervously stared at his childhood friend.

When he didn't answer Kyoko gritted her teeth and all but exploded.

The bottle flew out of her hand towards Sho's face. He was smart enough to duck as the plastic bottle hit the wall behind him with a thud, while Kyoko screamed out.

"She likes you! You bastard! Now let's think about why that would make her attack me? Did I do something bad to her? Hmm? Nope I don't think I did, so where does that leave this mysterious problem? Perhaps there is no answer…perhaps Mimori is just a crazy chick….." trailed off Kyoko sarcastically.

"Oh but wait!" she declared as she fisted her open palm, while Sho tried to stand up again "Let's not forget the bull crap of a move you tried to pull last weekend!"

"What move?" he asked softly.

Kyoko smirked devilishly.

"What move?" she repeated just as softly "The ass wipe of a move where you lied and told half the people in our class that you were going on a damn date with me."

Realization dawned on Sho but he quickly replaced with a look of arrogance as he folded his hands and looked down on her.

"I didn't say anything of the kind."

"What?"

"I never told anyone specifically that we were going on a date or that we are dating, if people assume stuff like that how is it my problem?"

Kyoko literally could not believe what she was hearing. Maybe something was wrong with her ear, because the piece of crap in front of her did not just say what she thought he just said.

"You're joking right?" she said somewhat desperately, wishing that boy she grew up with was not this much of a jerk. Oh she knew his faults well but this was an all too low, even for him.

Sho looked away from her and replied casually "Do I look like I'm joking to you? Stop blaming me for your stupid problems and grow up for once."

That was probably the worst thing Sho could have said in his entire life and sure enough when he faced her again the demons were already gleefully out and Kyoko looked ready to kill.

When she leaped for him Sho shrieked…..or screamed in a very manly manner.

His body took a fetal position on the ground as the first demon giggled its way to him in a hurry.

He was going to die.

He was going to die a slow and rather painful death.

Actually he was going to die the worst kinds of deaths, probably.

He could see the headline in the papers now, "Inspiring young man, maimed to death by psychotic ex-childhood friend".

Well the only good thing out of that would be the punishment Kyoko would deserve, but what good would that do if he was dead.

Just as fast as the demonic barrage came it ended just as abruptly.

"Let go of me!" shrieked Kyoko and Sho hoped that whoever it was would never let her go.

Peeking through his hands Sho looked up to see Kyoko being carried like a sack on the shoulder of the pretty boy counselor!

"You might want to get up now Shotaro" said Hizuri-sensei as he ignored Kyoko's hits and protestations.

Grumbling Sho got up and dusted himself off.

"You okay?"

"Hmph, you really think those weak hits hurt me?" asked Sho cockily, wondering why this damn counselor was interfering like he was saving lives.

Hizuri-sensei rolled his eyes.

"Let me down Sensei! And you wuss stop lying! If it wasn't for Sensei you would be in the hospital by now!"

"Who the hell are you call a wuss you crazy girl!?"

Tightening his grip around Kyoko's waist Hizuri-sensei chuckled "Kyoko-san please stop moving around so much, or I might drop you."

"Maybe you should listen to her and put her down" stated Sho, clearly forgetting that mere moments ago the same girl was beating him into the ground itself.

Hizuri-sensei raised his eyebrow "I'll let her down once you leave the room Shotaro"

"And why would I do that?"

"For your own safety perhaps?"

"I can take care of myself" said Sho darkly not liking Kyoko in that position.

"See Sensei he can take care of himself so please put me down so I can continue where I left off," said Kyoko trying to wiggling her way out of Hizuri-sensei's grip.

"Kyoko-san" said Hizuri-sensei smiling brightly and although Kyoko could not see that smile she could feel the stillness floating in the air.

"Hai" she said weakly, hoping he was not too mad that she used violence on baka Sho.

"Please stop moving around."

"Hai" came the whisper.

"Shotaro please go home."

"I can't"

"Oh, why not?" asked Hizuri-sensei pleasantly.

"Because I need to go to the office with you."

Hizuri-sensei slanted his head "The office?"

"Yeah. Don't tell me that you're not going to report this act of violence by my classmate," said Sho smirking.

"You ass!" yelled Kyoko and Hizuri-sensei's voice stopped her from speaking further.

"Yes let's go, and we should probably bring Aki-sensei along with us too, don't you think so Shotaro-san?"

Sho stared at the smiling man in front of him and gulped.

"Why would we need to bring her along?" he laughed tensely.

"Well I just thought that if we're going to spill some beans, why not spill them all? It would be far more fun that way."

Looking into those lightened green eyes Sho knew that he lost, he did not want to admit it, but he saw no way out. It pissed his off to no end, but there was nothing he could do, if this was only about him he would have gone against the man in front of him but there was Aki to consider.

"This isn't over yet" said Sho as he walked out of the room.

Smiling Hizuri-sensei shook his head at the young man walking out the door.

Gently placing her down on the bed Hizuri-sensei looked down at the shameful Kyoko.

She would not meet his eyes as she played with her skirt.

He ever so carefully reached out for her moving hand. Just as his proportional fingers touched hers she flew off the bed and prostrated herself on the ground.

"I'm so sorry please forgive me for causing so much trouble! I didn't mean to let it get this far but the idiot just would not leave me alone. And I'll understand completely if you take me to the principal's office. Actually I'll go there myself and confess my crime!"

While she ranted Hizuri-sensei grinned and crouched down in front of her.

"Doesn't your knee hurt?" he asked concerned.

Kyoko looked up at him, wondering if he was teasing her. His eyes were laced with worry.

"Come on, let's heal you up."

He stood and held out his hand for her.

Kyoko hesitantly took the much bigger hand and wondered where the warmth was coming from.

"You're not mad?" she asked shyly as Hizuri-sensei applied some ointment to her knee.

He shook his head, gold locks waving about, concentrating on her knee "No, why would I be mad?"

"Because I beat up Sho."

"Why did you beat him up?"

Kyoko put her head down in disgrace.

"Umm…because…he was being annoying?"

Hizuri-sensei looked up at her grinning "Annoying huh? Isn't that like always though?"

Kyoko pursed her lips trying to keep the bubbles from gushing out of her mouth but Hizuri-sensei would not tear his eyes or grin away from her.

Out came the giggles as Hizuri-sensei lightly bandaged her knee, his fingers browsing her skin every so often.

"So you're not mad?" asked Kyoko after catching her breath.

"Nope"

"Does that mean I won't get in trouble either?"

Kyoko knew that was the wrong to say as Hizuri-sensei looked up from examining her palm.

"Weeeelll I don't know about that, after all you did abuse a fellow student."

Kyoko puffed her cheek out and retorted "He was being annoying!"

"True, but as an adult you cannot expect me to let something like that go, can you?"

"You're teasing me again."

"Am I?"

"You're smirking" she told the hidden face.

Hizuri-sensei chuckled as he got up "All finished Kyoko-san."

Kyoko looked down to see that all of her wounds were wonderfully bandaged or disinfected.

"Arigatou"

"Don't mention it."

"Sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Am I really in trouble?"

Hizuri-sensei laughed as he put everything back in its place.

"Why are so worried about getting in trouble?"

"Kyoto-sensei told me that if I get in anymore trouble there is a big chance I would get expelled…and I really don't want to get expelled Sensei! I'll try being good again so can you please not tell him?" she all but begged the man in the room.

"What happened to confessing your crimes?"

"Senseiiii! Don't!"

"Ah so you were lying before."

A flustered Kyoko shook her head and tried to explain herself but no words would come out.

Laughing at her Hizuri-sensei said calmly "Don't worry Kyoko-san I won't tell anyone but you really can't keep doing this, if you want to get your revenge than you really need to learn how to do it properly."

Kyoko gave him a pointed look as she replied "Oh and who was the one who bragged all about his revenge taking skills? And didn't this same person tell me that he would help me take revenge?"

"Hai hai, Miss Impatient"

"I'm not impatient!"

"Hai! Come on let's get out of here and we'll talk revenge okay?"

Kyoko obediently followed him out the room.

"And you can tell me all about how you got those wounds too," he added teasing her along.

"Ehhhhh!"

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Are any japanese reading this and laughing their butt off? Which brings me to my other question are there any guys reading this? which leads me to ask if guys read Skip Beat?

Reino, Sho AND Kuon all in one package! hehe

Sorry if i have not replied to your reviews or PMs, i shall get to those soon!

**_Schönen Dank_ for Reading, Reviewing, Favoriting, and Following!** (Got the German off the net so hit me up if it's wrong, or there is proper way of saying "many thanks")


	11. Chapter 11

Has it been like a month since the last upload? Possibly...I'm too tired to check. I did NOT under any circumstance mean to put this up so late but work has/is killing me. We've been having major problems and some how i got appointed as the pseudo IT person...which makes zero sense cuz me and technology aren't exactly the best of friends. Since the problems got fixed I finally got time today to actually sit down and write more than two sentences per day. Anyways blame me not, blame my work...or not...lol really though guys sorry.

Mistakes...are probably there but like before I'm too tired to double check.

Enjoy!

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"What?" he asked, clearly not understanding why she was looking at him like that.

When she did not reply, Kuon stared at her waiting patiently.

With a shake of her head, she spoke "Care to tell me why your office is such a mess?"

Kuon shrugged "Well if we need to talk I thought it best to have a legit reason as to why you're in my office without an actual reason."

He did not outright say it, but he did not want her to get into any more trouble than she already had been. If she was found in his office one too many times then questions would arise, questions that would more than likely burden her even more so.

"So you created a mess just so you could talk to me?"

Kuon blinked in surprise, Kyoko it would seem jumped from point A to a point that even he was not willing to be aware of. He had wanted to talk to her but he never gave that feeling much thought, or at least he tried not to, but when she put it in that manner it made it all the more real.

"I wouldn't really put it that way" said Kuon folding his arms in defense, and hoping that she would not see how unsettling that sentence had been for him.

"Then why did you do it?"

"Oh, I had to look for some files and throw away some of the things, so I thought why not clean everything out?"

He waved his hands in the direction of the file bins on the floor and tried not to look into her sunny eyes.

"Oh," she nodded her head in understanding and Kuon put on a small smile, glad she did not see through his lie.

They stood in their regular awkwardness, not really knowing what to do with each other.

Kuon stared, though gazed would be a more appropriate term, at her as she looked about, trying not to pay particular attention to her moving eyes or her rather straight hair. Actually it might be better if I did not look at her at all, he thought as his eyes landed on her small waist, the same waist that had been agonizingly withering on his shoulder moments ago.

It had been dangerous picking her up like that to avoid Fuwa getting killed…perhaps he should have left her to do what she wanted.

Shaking his head at the traitorous thought, he was brought back to the feeling of holding on to the girl in front of him. Even now his fingers were ghosted with the feel of her body.

It did not occur to him at the time that taking such an action would be painful for him, and with her wiggling around it had been even more so. Yet he could not deny that there was a part of him that had smiled in glee when he had touched her, the same part that could not forget the shape of her body when he had picked her up to place on his bike.

He had touched women before, knew the feel of someone's skin on his own, but there was never a feeling of soul wrenching desire to imbed himself into her.

The past few days when he had not seen her would have made Lory laugh in triumph if he had seen the way Kuon had behaved, like a lone wolf passing the days, howling at the moon. Okay, so he did not really howl at the moon but the pathetic "I want to see her" face had his coworkers asking many a questions about his emotional state. Kijima even went so far as to ask Kuon if he was depressed because of a sad breakup.

Depressed! Ha! Over a girl? Well….it was not so much borderline depression as it was a dire need to interact with her.

It was official he thought, he was not only attracted to her he was having honest to god feelings for her. Feelings, like actually feelings, not the kind of feelings that made him crave frozen yogurt on rainy days. They were not even the kind of feelings that made him feel that a woman looked beautiful or that he wanted to get to know her. No these feelings went deeper, did he think she was attractive? Yes in her own way she was, and did he want to get to know her more? He did, but those things took background to the feeling of wanting to possess her.

Not in the physical sense but in the whole sappy I want your soul deal….okay so that sounded like a demon come to wreak havoc and sucks people's souls, but honestly he had no way to describe his emotional state. There were words out there but no words could ever come close to describing the feeling one feels in their soul concerning the object of their affections. It's simply not done, can one come close? Yes they can but emotions cannot completely be put into words.

He knew it was unreasonable, and he knew it did not make sense, but then again when did love ever make sense…or coming close to being in love.

Was he in love with her? No, far from it but he knew that his current feelings would lead him in that direction. It had been a while since he had fallen in love, she was not his first but a growing part of him wanted her to be his last.

He had only known her a few weeks and she had pretty much had him at day one. That is not to say that he fell in love with her at first sight but she had managed to hook him and slowly without even knowing it she was reeling him in day by day. It was not a Romeo and Juliet kind of love but the kind of love that forms like a small snow ball rolling down a hill, gaining momentum and mass with each roll.

"So what do you want me to do?" floated the voice into his rambling thoughts.

He shook himself out of his long epiphany like reflection.

"Let's start with organizing the files of people who have already graduated, if you don't mind."

"Okay," she said as she waited for him to lead her into the right direction.

Kuon looked at the boxes on the floor, and wondered...lost in his musing once again.

"Sensei?"

"Ah yes," he said coming back to earth again.

He walked over to a box that the previous counselor had packed and left for him to take care of. He never had a chance to look at that closed box and now seemed like a good time as any, especially since he needed the distraction.

Taking a pair of scissors from his desk he crouched down and ripped off the tape. He stiffened slightly when Kyoko came down to sit near him. Not sitting nearly as close as he thought she was sitting.

She is too close for comfort he thought, as his hands moved to open the flaps.

He concentrated on the box, peeking inside to see it filled with files and some binders.

Kuon reached in and pulled a stack of files.

Rifling through the names without much thought he opened one file up and looked at the latest date. Six years back.

"Here, we can start with these first, look at the latest entry and if it's more than five years old than put it in a separate pile," Kuon handed Kyoko the files, pointing to the dates and such as he reached for the box for more.

Kyoko took them without comment and they both made themselves comfortable on the floor, as they went through each file.

"Are you going to throw away the old ones?" she asked once they finished.

"No, I'm going to scan them and put them into the school system."

"Why not just do that to all the files? Make them electronic, instead of keeping hard copies."

"Because it's annoying to pull things up through the system and plus no one likes to have a person typing away on a laptop or computer while they are talking about personal matters."

"Oh"

Kuon read the information in the binder while Kyoko stared about.

"Sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you mad at me?"

"Eh?"

He glanced up at her and abruptly looked back at the binder.

"What makes you think that?" he asked berating himself for looking away like a damn thief.

"Because you won't meet my eyes" she said softly.

Oh man he was losing it, completely losing it. Where was the balanced, calm, and collected Kuon?

Regaining some form of sense he replied slowly "I'm not mad Kyoko-san, I'm just distracted by something."

Mainly you.

"Oh"

"Yes, sorry I seem so out of it."

He looked up and gave her a smile. Banzai! Old Kuon was back…sort of.

"Is there….no never mind" she said shaking her head in the end.

"What?" he prodded, but she did not answer and just shook her head again.

He found her fingers playing with her skirt and he knew something was up. It appeared that her habit of playing with her skirt was reactionary, either out of nervousness or feeling uncomfortable.

Without a second thought he reached out and stopped the moving hands.

Time froze, and yet everything seemed to be in motion.

He froze.

She froze.

Her hands felt soft. Like how one would imagine clouds would feel if one could touch them.

Not knowing why he touched her so, Kuon just looked at his hands surrounding hers.

Abruptly his hands became empty and Kyoko stood.

Kuon looked up at her to see her rosy cheeks and her eyes darting here and there refusing to look at him now.

"Are you mad Kyoko-san?" he asked lightly with a hint of teasing, clearly border lining on flirtville. Bad Kuon.

She shook her head, "No, why do you ask?"

"Because you're not meeting my eyes."

Her eyes landed on him, and she quickly looked away again.

"I'm not mad"

"Then why won-"

"Sensei, didn't you tell me that you would help me get revenge?"

Though he did not show it, Kuon was glad that she changed the subject. The time was not right to sit here analyzing why his body was moving on its own and why his emotions were overruling his brain. Just because he liked her did not mean he should act out of character. Nor was it the right time to be teasing like that.

"That I did," said Kuon, regaining some sense of seriousness, as he stood too, brushing off nonexistent dust off his pants.

"Soo where shall we start?" asked Kuon rubbing his hands together.

"Ways to kill Sho?" she replied innocently, fingers grazing his desk.

"Ha-ha-ha! That's taking it a bit far, why don't we slow down and move some steps back. Start at step one you know?"

"I guess we could do that" she said and Kuon could have sworn he heard disappointment in her voice.

They both sat down and started at each other for a few good minutes.

"Sooo?"

"Sooo?"

Kuon rolled his eyes "You do realize that you need to give me a bit more than 'sooo' for me work here right?"

"But you already know too much!" she exclaimed.

"Not enough to lay out a decent plan."

Kyoko sighed and Kuon knew that she did not want to dig herself deeper into this than she already was. Emotionally deeper that is, he knew that she liked to keep her problems to herself because of her upbringing.

"What do you want to know?" she asked in a near death voice.

Kuon tried to keep the grin off his face "You know if you feel that adamant about telling me things then we can forgo this whole revenge thing."

"NO!"

Kuon raised an eyebrow up at her, and watched as she slowly sat back down again.

"No" she said much more meekly "I'll tell you what you need to know."

Kuon nodded. He knew the gist of the situation, but he still felt like he was missing something, and there was also the fact that he needed to clarify some things.

"So the biggest reason of course is your motive, if you have too small of a motive then chance are that you won't be able to pull this off."

"It's big"

"How big?" he prodded.

"Big enough"

"Kyoko-san"

She sighed again "I….we…I don't…"

"You love him" Kuon pointed out bluntly.

He knew from her face that he hurt her, but certain things needed to be done in order to reach a goal. His priority as counselor had not changed; he wanted to heal her emotional scars whether she wanted him to or not. Romeo Kuon could wait with all his 'save the girl of his dreams of whatever'. A job was a job.

To some it might appear that he was forcing his right as a counselor on her but he had her best interest at hand. She was the type of person who could glow like a firefly on a breezy summer night if she overcame her emotional scars. He knew she had a lot of them too, much more than half the students in the school. And she needed someone to prod, poke, and push until something gave.

"I loved him" she muttered putting emphasis on loved.

"Really?"

"Yes"

"Love does not disappear overnight Kyoko-san."

"Well then you'll be glad to know that it wasn't overnight" she stated stubbornly.

"Of course"

"You don't believe me," she accused.

"Nope, not one bit"

She crossed her arms childishly "Well that's not my problem now is it?"

Kuon didn't answer.

He shrugged "Then I guess we can sit here and gaze wonderfully upon each other."

"Hmph!"

Kuon put his chin in his palm and the staring continued. It was strange that they stared more than they spoke to each other, or at least that's the way Kuon saw it.

"Ok! Fine maybe, just MAYBE there is a stupid part of me that still loves him for whatever moronic reason, but that doesn't really mean anything! Because it's not important at all," she said giving in after a few moments.

"Alright, we'll go with that for now"

Kyoko opened her mouth to argue but Kuon held his hand up to stop her as he continued "Like you said, it's not all that important right now, so please continue on with the story."

"I was a delusional idiot who fell for a stupid emotion, along with an equally stupid guy and thanks to that my eyes have opened up."

"Uh-huh"

"Yeah"

"And that's all there is to this?"

"Pretty much"

"Then we're back at square one aren't we?"

"Uggh! You know your being really annoying right now! And stop smirking!"

"Kyoko-san, when did you see Shotaro kiss Aki?"

All anger was drained from her eyes as she shrugged "Does it matter?"

"It does" he replied firmly.

"A few weeks before I came to your office for the first time"

"And that was the reason you did all those things to him?"

No answer was forthcoming but Kuon knew he was getting closer.

"Kyoko-san don't you think it's a bit unfair that you would let your jealousy harm those around you? On a work ethics level it was wrong of Aki and Shotaro to be kissing, but let's put that aside for now and focus on what you did. Don't you think it's wrong that you used your jealousy to justify your actions to yourself?"

Kuon he was pushing her, he could see it from the way her head was lowered and her hands were gripping her skirt. He knew that it was not jealousy that made her act the way she did and that revenge was not on her mind because of such a small thing. It was not in her character to let her jealousy control her actions, if anything thing he would bet that she was the kind of person who would bury that jealousy deep within the depths of her soul and never let a anyone take so much as a peek.

"You liked him, yes" continued Kuon, waiting for the volcano that was sure to erupt after what he was saying "but that doesn't mean that he's has any sort of obligation to like you back or to stay true to you Kyoko-san. As far as a romantic relationship goes, he had no ties to you; he was and is free to do whatever he wanted."

Her head shook as Kuon paused.

"You know I'm right"

Her shook stronger and she stood, blurting out defensively "That's not it at all! I've seen him with other people but this time it was different! We were going out!"

"Or at least I thought so…."she said dejectedly unfurling her anger as her shoulders slumped.

"That wasn't so hard to get off was it?" smiled Kuon when things settled.

He had heard the rumors around the school and none of them ever spoke of a mutual romantic relationship between Kyoko and Shotaro. Still he knew something was missing, and now he knew what that something was.

"I'm leaving"

"Eh? What! Hey wait Kyoko-san!"

Kuon scrambled out of his seat to chase down the girl who just left his office.

Stubbing his foot on the boxes on the floor, he almost tripped but managed to make to the door in one piece. Damn!

* * *

Ok this is going to be a long one so bear with me plz. First of and foremost thanks to all of you who replied to my fake chapter! I'll reply to those "reviews" soon.

Next thing, ok so i don't how or where some of you got the idea or thought that I'm not finishing this story, and i know my track record is not the best but hopefully this will one day be complete. So yeah i have no plans of stopping this any time too soon.

And i honest to go don't know where some of you got the idea that Kyoko will end up with Sho...because I don't think I ever even so much as HINTED that Kyoko will/might/possibly/perhaps end with Sho...cuz I dunno about other authors/stories, but lets just clarify NO WAY IN HELL WILL THE KYOKO OF THIS STORY END UP WITH SHO! Hahaha not to say I hate Sho but the punk does NOT deserve her! ever. So we clear right? cool? Cools.

Last point...I think...I did read each and every review/PM carefully and thought about what you guys said for like days literally and it kinda just enforced what I wanted to do with this story...drum roll please...Kuon will not sadly end up with Kyoko, you have been warned. Will there be an epilogue with an happier ending? Perhaps, chances are big but I shan't promise in case I can't do one.

Ah the major point i did forget! To all you who were worried about my statement "sprinkles of romance" well I hope this chapter proves some parts of what you thought wrong. Seriously Kuon was too cheesy in here with his inner thoughts...made me almost shiver in the cheesyiness of it all...and my sprinkles of romance will be as generous as i can make them, none of that powered sugar stuff...though powered sugar tastes good...oh man now i want some cake...but if you guys still have a problem with the romance...then we'll work something out, but not if you want them to like get hitched in the next couple of chapters and have a couple of kids and live happily ever after...life doesn't work like that...and plus then the characters would totally be flat which i hare.

So yeah i think thats pretty much it. Oh yes! hehe sorry guys, but someone asked me through a review if they can adopt this story...and I'll be truthfully mean and say I'm sorry but one may not adopt this story...yet...maybe in the far off future...like twenty years from now...though I felt kinda honored that you would ask...

**Maraming salamat for Reviewing/Favoriting/Following/and Reading!** (Found this on the internet again, so if it's wrong then hit me up. Indonesian)


	12. Chapter 12

Yay! A new chapter, slightly longer and it didn't take me a whole month to upload...actually i kinda finished this like six days ago but didn't get a chance to upload it because of work... :(

Also I'm getting a lot more follows and favorites on this story so thanks for that! Made me all happy :D

Mistakes: there might be some, there might not be...i'm too out of it to care too much..

**ENJOYS!**

* * *

Skirt a fluttering, feet a pounding, hearts a racing echoed through the hallway, or so they both thought.

Completely aware of any student or teacher that might pop out from crossing hallways, Kyoko and Kuon managed to stay out of sight, neither knew how, but perhaps for once fate was on their side. If only.

For such a small girl Kyoko sure could run fast, thought Kuon as he gained on her. She screeched a turn and Kuon diligently followed until he had to stop.

Smile poised and legs abruptly slowed to a normal walk Kuon greeted a couple of his colleagues, practically hopping on his feet simply rushing to get away.

Thankfully neither person noticed his state as they parted ways.

Kuon kept the small pace and smile until the teachers were out of sight and then it was back to the marathon.

He did catch up to her, blocking her escape and she did not seem happy at all.

"Why are you running away?"

"I'm not" she denied.

He gave her a pointed look, which she chose to match with one of her own.

"You do realize that we can't keep this whole silence every five minutes thing up right?" he was impatient and unnerved. Above all else he wanted to know why she ran out of his office like that. Like some monster was chasing after her. Like she was running from him. Like he might have been the monster.

"Well then perhaps you should stop pestering me and leave me alone."

It had been a long time since his mouth hung open like it did now.

"Did you just hear what you said to me?" he asked flabbergasted when nothing else was coming from her.

Out of some strange reflex they both grabbed each other and managed to shove themselves in a room.

Listening carefully to the shrilly voices on the other side of the door neither took notice of their relatively small surroundings.

"Maybe she's with Sho-chan" offered lackey number three.

"No" came the pouting voice of Mimori "Sho-chan told me that he had an important appointment that he couldn't miss and plus I saw him leave the school alone. That brat on the other hand is still here. I know it."

Once the voices paused Kuon looked around and almost shoved the door open. They were in a firkin broom closet! What gave? Because last time he checked he was not a wizard in a magical school, where there were broom closets a plenty for those teenagers to go crazy. Okay fine it wasn't exactly a broom closet, but a janitor's closet. Still, of all the rooms in the huge school why did it have to be the smallest one they had?

Actually with the size of the closet this could easily be called a compartment. Kuon could barely fit in here with his six feet and some three odd inches. Ah and let's not forget the girl he was undoubtedly attracted to was a hand lengths away, what with her sweet face and charming ability to turn him into a sap. Curse broom closets and Nanokura's evil aptitude for showing up when she was unwanted.

Was it him or did she have small ears? Not impossibly tiny, but small and cute. Oh god, he was becoming a sap.

Trying to clear his thoughts of the girl who was way too close to him, Kuon was practically ready to leap out of the closet when the voices died down but Kyoko put her hand on his arm and shook her head.

"They're gone" he indicated whispering.

"I hear someone else" she whispered back.

Sure enough more footsteps and voices followed her statement.

Oh why oh why was he being tortured so?!

Alright Kuon get your damn act together, he told himself trying not to let his inner teenager with a crush take over. This was not the first time he was attracted to a woman and he sure as heck was not about to lose his cool in front of this young girl. Actually do yourself a favor and focus on the fact that she is a young girl, can't go around being a perverted creep like that now can we Kuon?

Nope came the internal answer as he chanted in his head that he was a counselor and she was just a student. Just a student. Just a young student.

Fate must have been smiling down on him as the voices left as soon as they came.

Both leapt out of the room at an alarming speed, trying to avoid each other's eyes. How cute.

"Well then I guess I'll be going Sensei" she said.

Kuon nodded absentmindedly, until he remembered why they were here to begin with.

"Kyoko-san" he said pleasantly and she froze mid-step "I believe you are forgetting something."

She did not turn around and he was having mixed feelings about that.

"Umm what would that be Sensei?" she asked anxiously.

"Well for one you're forgetting a certain little conversation we were having before you dashed out of my office."

Turning around slowly, she laughed shakily "Well you see Sensei; I've decided that this whole revenge thing isn't really for me, so let's just forget about the whole thing."

She waited with abated breath as he crossed his arms and stared at her.

When his mouth curved into that cloaked smile Kyoko felt like a gazelle being stalked by a lion.

"Kyoko-san" he asked sweetly "do you have work today?"

"Uhh noo, not really….I mean…."she trailed off, not being an expert liar he knew that she prayed her answer would deter him from whatever he was planning.

"Then shall we go back to my office?" he asked motioning his hand for her to go ahead of him.

Head bend low Kyoko took small steps as she walked back knowing she could not fight this. Not yet anyways.

Their footsteps echoed through the hallways, one by one.

Kuon kept his eyes strictly on the back of her head, taking grand care that the mischievous orbs did not roam down those rather long legs.

Once they reached his office, Kuon packed his things as Kyoko stood in the corner like a child who was being punished.

Kuon was going to take a risk here as he led them out the school and into the narrow streets of the small town.

He was surprised that Kyoko followed him so quietly, without any contradiction.

Kuon locked up Martha with great care and walked down the stairs leading to the small gloomy alleyway.

"Ano Sensei?" whispered Kyoko, making him pause.

"Hai?"

"Do you know where you're going?" she questioned hesitantly, this was not exactly the place that people came to and the ones that did come into this area of town were always of questionable character.

Kuon chuckled as he started walking again.

"Don't worry Kyoko-san I'll take care that no harm comes to you."

Kyoko huffed "That's not what I meant, and I can take care of myself."

Kuon did not need to turn around to see the telltale blush of embarrassment that would be dusted on her cheeks.

Fourth door on the left was the one Kuon opened and Kyoko scurried after him, holding on to her book bag for dear life.

Kyoko was surprised to see that they had entered a pool hall.

Too busy checking out her surroundings she bumped into Kuon and almost fell down.

"You okay?" Kuon asked worriedly.

"Hai" she said softly mentally berating herself.

"I told you I would make sure you came to no harm didn't I?" he teased.

Kyoko rolled her eyes at his grin.

"Come on" he told her as he walked over to the bar that lined one wall of the hall.

"Don't worry they don't really sell alcohol here, the bars mostly for kids who want drinks and snacks while they play," he added, seeing her cautious steps.

"Yukihito" Kuon waved to the bespectacled bartender, who lightened up at the voice.

"Kuon! You're late! You said you would come on Tuesday, I know you have a busy schedule but you know that talking-"

Kuon grinned; trying to keep the laughter out of his face as Yukihito in his bartender suit finally saw Kyoko peeking out from behind Kuon's larger frame.

"Yukihito, Mogami Kyoko-san. Kyoko-san this is Yashiro Yukihito," introduced Kuon.

"Hajimemashite Yashiro-san" bowed Kyoko.

Yukihito blinked behind his glasses, a lock of his straight hair coming out of his ponytail and onto his cheekbone.

Kyoko and Kuon waited for him to greet her back but Yukihito just stared at Kyoko, like she was a new species.

"Yukihito?" said Kuon waving his hand in front of his friends face.

With a jerk of his head Yukihito finally looked away from Kyoko and stared at Kuon.

"You…." he took one last look at the tense Kyoko and said to Kuon "we need to talk."

Without waiting for an answer he walked through a door behind the bar.

"Sorry about that Kyoko-san, he's usually not rude, I don't know what's gotten into him" apologized Kuon for Yukihito's behavior.

Kyoko shook her head "It's okay Sensei, I understand."

Even though she was smiling he knew that she felt hurt.

He reached out and pinched her cheek ever so lightly "It's not okay, so don't smile like it is and don't even think about running away princess because we both know I'll come after you. I'll be right out, so make yourself comfortable."

When he let go of her she pouted and Kuon smiled gently down at her, not knowing that he was harming some demons in the process.

"So drama queen what's the big idea for acting like such a jerk?" pressed Kuon as he entered Yukihito's office of sorts.

"Who is she?"

Kuon rolled his eyes at his friend. Yuikhito was sitting with his arms folded and a glaring 'I cannot believe what you did' look on his face.

"A student at the school"

"So why is she here?"

"Perhaps because I brought her here" said Kuon twirling the small paper weight in his hands "is it me or did you get more stuff since I last came by?"

Kuon eyed the deer head on the wall. Why a deer head?

"Stop changing the subject and trying to be a smartass"

"Hey it's not my fault that you're asking me stupid questions. And what's with the deer head? Since when were you a Bambi killer? And you know I always pegged you down for an animal lover of sorts, or even an animal activist," ranted Kuon as he took a closer look at the deer staring backing at him. Should he touch it to see if it was real?

"Kuon! Stop getting so distracted. Wait, who is Bambi?"

Kuon paused his hand and swiftly turned around to face the other man "You don't know who Bambi is?"

Yukihito raised his eyebrow "Should I know who he is? Don't tell me you just named that silly deer head?!"

Kuon rolled his eyes and exclaimed "I can't believe you don't know who Bambi is! For crying out loud you watched icky Cinderella but you never watched Bambi?"

"So it's a movie?"

"Yeah only like one of the greatest movies ever! I mean with all the crap Disney takes out one would think that you would watch the one movie that was actually good."

"Hey they have some good movies!"

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Lion King."

"Only cuz I practically had to force you to watch it."

"Okay, what about Aladdin"

"Meh" said Kuon shrugging, "It was okay but not worthy of anything else."

"Fine, then what about the Little Mermaid? That was really popular."

"First of most of Disney's princess movies suck because the main chick is always dependent on someone to save her, and in the end she always ends up with some dude that she spends like fifteen minutes of movie time with."

"Nu-huh Tangled wasn't like that, and neither was Mulan, or the Princess and the Frog."

Kuon shook his head, "Listen how about we continue this rather life changing conversation some other time?"

"Only cuz you know I'm right" smirked Yukihito childishly.

"Yeah, yeah, on to important matters, I think you owe Kyoko-san an apology."

"Okay fine" said Yukihito getting up from his chair.

"Wait a second!"

Kuon sighed "Now what?"

"You still didn't answer my question."

"Look I'll answer your questions later, for now apologize to her and let me use your office."

"Will you really?"

"Only the ones that I'm allowed to"

"Fine"

They walked back into the hall, only to see Kyoko standing on a step ladder trying to reach out for a bottle while the young man sitting on a stool was watching her…ehem…skirt rather closely. That was putting it lightly, seeing as how he was clearly undressing her with his eyes.

Kuon stalked over to the pair and in less than a second grabbed Kyoko's waist from both sides and picked her off the step ladder.

"Kyaaa! Sensei!"

He put her down and looked over her head at the young man who gulped, disappointed and scared that his little pleasure had stopped.

"May I help you with anything sir?" inquired Yukihito pasting on a dangerous smile.

Leaving the man to Yukihito, Kuon picked up Kyoko's bag off the bar and took her along with him into the office.

"I'm sorry" were the first words out of her mouth as the door shut behind them.

"Why are you sorry?" asked Kuon, trying to cool the anger that was sloshing about.

Fingers on that damn skirt she did not meet his eyes.

"I know I shouldn't have but since Yashiro-san was talking with you I did not want to disturb him, and since all the customer wanted was a drink I thought I could be of service. Working at the inn I do have an idea about drinks and things of that nature. Even still I'll apologize to Yashiro-san for meddling in something I had no right to meddle in."

Neither said a word after her speech, even though Kuon had wanted to tell her that she had nothing to apologize for, until she spoke again.

"But Sensei, I don't like being manhandled," and she walked past him to go apologize.

That's the second time today, thought Kuon as he was struck by what she said. Still he had to give it to her, she knew when to cross the line and let him know if she was uncomfortable. He wondered if she had been the same way with Shotaro.

Kuon turned around to stand in the door way to see a blushing Yukihito; obviously he was feeling shame for his past rudeness to Kyoko.

She was apologizing and he was shaking his head and moving his hands about, no doubt apologizing too.

Kuon walked back into the office and wandered about, noticing the tacky wallpaper.

Seriously, something needed to be done about this place.

"Sensei?"

Kuon moved his head to face her.

She was standing there waiting for him.

"Have a seat Kyoko-san" Kuon motioned towards the chair.

She sat down and he still wandered around.

"Sensei?"

"Ah, sorry about that, it's been a while since I've been here and the changes are kind of surprising me at every turn."

"Why is it surprising?"

Kuon chuckled "Well this isn't exactly Yukihito's taste"

"Oh"

Silence came about as Kuon twisted his head about to figure out just what the heck the painting in front of him was about.

"Have you known him long?"

"Known who long?"

"Yashiro-san?"

"Kyoko-san come here"

She came and stood next to him.

"What do you think this is?" he asked pointing to the painting.

She looked at the painting and then looked at him, only to go back to the painting.

"Umm I'm not sure…maybe….actually I don't know at all."

"Hmmm"

They stood there side by side staring at something that might have just been a mistake.

"Why did you run away?" he asked faintly.

Then it broke the calm aura that surrounded them. The crackle of Kyoko's defense could almost be felt in the air.

He did not elaborate because he knew that she knew about what he was referring to.

"Because of this" she replied just as quietly.

"This?"

"Yes this Sensei," she said with frustration lacing her tone.

"What pray tell is 'this'?" he inquired, turning to look at her.

She turned to face him too, ready for battle.

"This," she waved her hand about "this, where you bring me to a stage where all my defenses are down and then you bring out things that I'd rather keep inside. You're too crafty for your own good Sensei. I never wanted someone to peek in my brain and have a go at it, but somehow you've managed to peek into my heart and bit by bit you're having a go at it. I don't like that, it bothers me and it's highly uncomfortable, especially when I know next to nothing about you."

"So you want to know more about me?" his infatuated mouth asked, choosing to ignore the elephant in the room. His heart might also have fluttered a bit at her last sentence.

It was her pointed look that brought him back down to earth. He was teasing her when she was being completely serious about something very important to her.

"Sorry!" he exclaimed, wishing he could punch himself right now "I didn't mean to say that...sorry."

"It's okay"

"So that's why you want to stop this whole revenge thing? Not because you've magically forgiven Shotaro or something?"

"Yes, and I think you know me better by now that there is no way in hell that I would forgive that idiot so easily."

"Actually now that you mention it I really don't know you as well as you think I do. And the whole being crafty thing, I'm not doing it on purpose; it's just my way of finding things out. I wouldn't really call it crafty," he explained.

"But you still do it" she pointed out.

"Yeah but you can't hold it against me"

"I wouldn't hold it against you if you stopped doing it."

"Even if it means that something like that is helping you?"

"It is not helping me" she scoffed.

"Yes it is" he said smirking "that's why you're feeling so uncomfortable about all this."

"I am not!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"AM NOT!"

Face scrunched up adorably in frustration, hands fisted on the side of her skirt, Kuon wondered if he could hug her. Bad Kuon!

"Why are you so scared to let people in?"

"Why do you want to come in so badly? There's nothing worthwhile here anyways."

"Oh? And how exactly would you know that?"

"Experience Sensei, experience, not everybody in this world can be loved."

Simple words, it was always simple words coming from her mouth that rocked balance.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard" he stated, trying to push down the feeling of wanting to comfort her, because his sentence showed the hurt on her face.

"It is not!"

"Yes it is."

"Oh yes, because you would know!" she accused, using her anger to keep from falling apart in front of him.

"I would."

"No you wouldn't, everyone loves you."

Kuon laughed and Kyoko burned hotter.

"**It's not funny**."

"It's not? Well I think it is, the fact that you're assuming so many things based on the tip of the iceberg you see."

"I'm not assuming anything, I'm speaking from experience."

"Really? And would you care to tell me just how experienced you are?"

Her brows furrowed and Kuon knew he hit his mark.

"I'm….you can't measure something like that"

"Actually you can, not in words or units per say, but one can always measure experience, why do you think we have such labels as child, teenager, and adult, and even those have sub categories. Really, how many people have you met in your entire lifetime? Have you ever even ventured out of this town? This city? This country? Can you tell me honestly that you truly know more than a handful of people? And I'm not talking about people you've met, but people you've spent time with and took the effort to really get to know them. How can you claim that it's not possible for certain people to be loved based on your limited experience?"

Her eyes lost some of their light as he finished speaking. He was hurting her, he knew it but sometimes in life a push is better than a hug. He was stepping on something she had been so sure of all her life, something that was better stepped on now then letting it continue to be a mantra in her outlook of life.

When someone believes in something their whole life be it a good or bad thing, when they find out how wrong they have been about it, usually the first thing one feels is hurt, hurt because they realize how stupid they've been. The foundation on which a big part of their life was put on is crumbling down and all this time they had no clue.

It's like when the teacher asks a question and what you think is the answer is completely not what the answer actually is, and most often than not the first thing you do is berate yourself when you find out how wrong you were.

"I…"

"How can you think that there are people who are always loved? Like you said you know next to nothing about me so how can you say that I don't understand or that I'm liked by everyone?"

She did not answer and Kuon knew that everything he was saying was going into her mind with a dangerously overwhelming speed. Still he knew that she would overcome this little argument, in time she would come to realize just how precious she was.

"You guys want anything to drink?" floated in the voice of the chirpy Yukihito.

Both turned to face him, ensue the awkward silence.

One look at the pair told Yukihito that he should calmly step out of the room and go about his business, but Yukihito being who was he did no such thing.

Hand on his cheeks he exclaimed accusing Kuon "Did you make her cry?!"

"What?"

"No!"

Kuon and Kyoko spoke simultaneously.

"She looks like she's been crying," looking at Kyoko he asked "He didn't hurt you did he? He did didn't he?"

Wide eyed Kyoko shook her head and hands denying his assumptions as much as she could.

"No! No, no he didn't make me cry, and he didn't hurt me. You've got it all wrong Yashiro-san! It's nothing like that!"

Giving Kuon the stink eye Yukihito pressed "Are you sure? Because if he did, I'll protect you Kyoko-chan."

Kyoko-chan? Where did the 'chan' come from? Yukihito wasn't allowed to call her that was he? Of course not!

"Protect her? From what pray tell?" came the chilling voice.

Yukihito looked at Kuon and smiled nervously "Well…you know Kuon…well you were being mean to her!"

"Oh? "

"He was, wasn't he Kyoko-chan?" he asked looking for support for his valiant cause.

Kuon's mouth twitched annoyingly at the endearment.

"No, no Yashiro-san like I said before you've got it all wrong. Sensei wasn't being mean, nor did he hurt me. He's not the type of person who would do such a thing."

Not really believing her but not wanting to push Kuon anymore Yukihito nodded and repeated the question when he first entered the room.

* * *

hehehe notice the Yashiro? I was not going to put him in this story at all but he decided to jump in and have some fun. Though this is not to say that any of the other characters that you guys want to come into the picture will come in because i kinda have limited control over it.

By the way tell me if this is getting boring? I know a lot of you are waiting for the revenge thing to come into play but every chapter that i plan to bring in the revenge thing doesnt work out, and im left telling myself, "next chapter for sure" just like how i thought this story would have a maximum of 15 chapters and i thought i would be finished with it by now...

PS if you have not watched Bambi, please go and do so :)

**شكرا ****FOR READING/REVIEWING/FOLLOWING/FAVORITING!** (Arabic, Shukrun sorry the arabic font is so small but fanfic wont let me make it bigger and my word doc is being dumb and putting the last letter first and i'm too lazy to find out why)


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